My adverturous weekend before Finals week!

It started Friday night, and we were off to Porterville for the night. We stayed there, visited a little with the families, then we were off to Palmdale.

Goal: Christopher Bradney and Corinne Martinez' wedding!

An army of windmills in the Mojave.

Desert!

We saw snnooowwww!! Well, on the mountain tops, but still.

We get to Palmdale around 1pm or so. We hangout at the biggest Wal*Mart I have ever seen and stop by Pier 1. Then we go to my grandma and aunt's house. We were spending the night there then we would go to Redlands. Anyway, we get there and leave right away for a Music of Christmas show at my aunt's old church. It was fun. There was a ton of good music and pretty lights. We then went to meet my Aunt Shannon and Uncle Ran for dinner at Johnny Carinos. Amazing italian food! If you haven't eat there, you should. And get the nachos as an appetizer. Trust me, I know what you're thinking.. Nachos? Italian? But really, they're amazing. It was so wonderful to hang out with and see family.

We went back to the house and just hung out and talked. My grandma showed me old pictures. I love old pictures! There was one of me and my dad that I wish I would have borrowed to make a copy of. I was asleep on him while he was asleep. I love it! :)

The next morning we woke up to a wonderful breakfast of coffee, bacon and Cinnabon cinnamon rolls! So yummy. We actually left pretty late, but made it to the wedding early!

Eureka!Burger. Remember this post?

Well, the wedding was at the Chapel in University of Redlands. It was beautiful. Here are some of the highlights:

She surprised him with a song! It was beautiful.

"Yay! We're married." -- You know that's what they were thinking.

Their wedding was beautiful! I loved that it was Christmas-themed! Perfect. Once the wedding was over, we had some time before we headed over to The Mitten Building for the reception. In the meantime, Sam helped me go over some stuff in Watchmen for my final on Monday. It was a great help to me!

So we eventually moseyed on over to the reception where we were seated at a table alone. Well, we were seated with two friends who were unfortunately unable to attend because of car issues and the photographers. The photographers were so nice and I wish we got to talk to them more. Some highlights from the reception:

Groom's cake!

The wedding canole, of course.

I love Corinne's face in this picture! Gettin' her dance on!

It was so much fun to go and also just to see Chris and Corinne! So glad we got to talk with them for a bit. It's the first wedding that I've been to since I got married. Didn't participate in the bouquet toss.. kinda sad though because I've never caught the bouquet before. See! You can still get married without catching it. And Sam was thrilled not to have to participate in the garter toss! Haha.

After the wedding, we headed back home to Fresno. It was a long drive. I studied for my geography and popular fiction finals that I had the next day. We got home around 12:30am. It was an overall wonderful trip. Hope to do it again sometime!!!

My Christmas Listenin' List

I love this time of year. The changing colors in the trees with beautiful combinations of greens, reds, oranges and yellows. I love the change from hot to cold. Here in California, we unfortunately don't get much of a Autumn, but I definitely love what comes with the cold weather like blankets and scarves. I love time with my family and friends over dinner, board games or coffee. I enjoy setting up decorations around the house. But every Christmas season, one of the things I look forward to the most is wonderfully fun Christmas music. I'm not sure what it is, but I just love it.

With that said, here are my top 5 Christmas albums:

Number 5: If On A Winter's Night- Sting
This album isn't necessarily a "Christmas" album, but I'm classifying it as one anyway. The reason I say this is because Sting's lyrics are mostly about the season, Winter and not Christmas. The cd has a large variety of songs that you've never heard of; it's all new stuff. It's refreshing to hear something different.
Must Listens: Soul Cake (it's super catchy, but not in a bad way)

Number 4: Christmas Eve and Other Stories - Trans-Siberian Orchestra
First of all, I love orchestrated music. It's absolutely beautiful.  Second, I love rock. Put them together and you get this wonderful music. And for the most part with Trans-Siberian's cds, they tend to tell a story. I picked this song mainly because one of my favorite Christmas songs ever is on it. The song Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 is a wonderful, timeless song. The music video for it adds so much more to the song which makes me love this song even more.
Must Listens: Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24

Number 3: Let it Snow - Michael Buble
In my completely biased opinion, this album is terrific. Michael Buble really has a way of capturing the classic songs and turning them modern without ruining them. He continues to do this with Christmas music. It's certainly enjoyable, then again, he can do no wrong.
Must Listens: Home for Christmas

Number 2: Have Yourself a Very KT Christmas - KT Tunstall
This is definitely the most fun Christmas cd I own. The only part I don't like about it is that it's just so short. She adds rock to some classics and in some songs she even uses a xylophone and kazoo. Her rendition of the Hawaiian Christmas tune, Mele Kalikimaka (Christmas in Hawaii) is phenomenal. This album is definitely unconventional.
Must Listens: Mele Kalikimaka (Christmas in Hawaii) and Fairytale of New York

Number 1: Charlie Brown Christmas - Vince Guaraldi
Every since I was a kid, I've been a Charlie Brown fan. And I absolutely love Vince Guaraldi. While listening to the radio, it's always so easy to pick out his music from the others. It's so wonderful! This album is just filled with so many classics.
Must Listens: Linus & Lucy

Now here's your job: Go out and buy all these albums then thank me for introducing you to some great stuff. Enjoy these tunes for the next few weeks! Merry Christmas!

P.S. I totally wrote this blog backwards with exception to the introduction.

The Reality of History through Mad Men

After finding out what the show Mad Men was about just a few weeks ago, I knew I had to see it because it sounded just like the show I would enjoy because as you may already know, I'm pretty sure I was born during the wrong time. And sure enough, I do love it. I just finished the first episode of the first season and I'm disappointed it took me so long to watch this show.

I have a, let's say, interesting take on this show because in my 'women in history' class we are currently talking about women in the 1950s-60s. This show depicts exactly what we've been talking about these past few weeks.  It's this idea that women are primarily put on this Earth to be wives and mothers.They supposedly find their ultimate happiness in serving others through household chores. They're more concerned with the latest floor wax than a new car.

Right away, you're made aware of how unhappy Don Draper's wife is. She says that she's happy with her life and happy with the way things are going, but it's clear that she's not. This is exactly what these women felt like. They were unhappy and unfulfilled by their roles of housewives. Of course, they keep it inside because if they said anything then they were said to have something wrong with them. Women are supposed to find their ultimate satisfaction in being married and having children.

After having a semi-argument with a client, he was told to reconcile with her, I believe her name was Rachel. This is a little how the conversation went:

Draper:“Well, it’s just that you’re a beautiful, educated woman, don’t you think that getting married and having a family would make you happier than all the headaches that go along with fighting people like me?”

After Rachel corrects him and tells him that she basically enjoys her work, he says...

“So that’s it, you won’t get married because you find business to be a thrill.”

It's just interesting to see this played out. It's such a different world than things are now. I feel like I'm watching this show as if I had read the book first. I'm just watching it with a different perspective because of everything I'm learning. The show is fun and definitely my kind of thing. I'm excited to see what happens on the show.

Reasons to love Mad Men
John Hamm: For two reasons, actually. One being he played a small part in Gilmore Girls. He played Peyton, a man Lorelai dated for a very short period. And if you're on Gilmore Girls, you automatically win in my book. And, he made this video with Michael Buble (another way to get on my good side) on Saturday Night Live.

Watch the video here. And Love.

Progressive's Flo: Yes, that's right. FLO. She has a cameo on it! Pure brilliance. She's an operator.