Dear Drunk Latino on Local Bus,

Manuel Antonio Beach

Drunk men on buses and whistling/cat-calling aside (which happens in Costa Rica to anything that walks on 2 legs and has boobs), Costa Rica was freakin' awesome. My first time in Latin America and hopefully, not my last. We arrived in San Jose, traveled by bus four hours to the Pacific coast in the city of Quepos. Then we headed to our hotel in Manuel Antonio, directly on the beach. The landscape was beautiful, the food delicious,the people so friendly and the beaches gorgeous. We spent a lot of time on the beach, riding the waves and hiking the rainforests. My buddy Dorothy and I decided to be our goofy selves and made a parody of the show 'Lost' with my crappy digital camera. It was a perfect setting: rainforests sitting directly behind the beaches.

Nothing too crazy happened. Happy hour took place everyday and it was pretty happy and slightly dizzying. . .people in Latin America love their drinks super strong. So a typical day involved waking up early with the sun, spending the morning at the bonita beach, going into town for lunch, headed back out for some more fun in the sun or hiking in the rainforests, out for dinner, a drink or 2, an amusing walk back to the hotel, followed by watching movies while sprawled out on our beds, pass out, repeat. Pura vida, indeed.

Okay, so not quite an island, but I think the beaches of Costa Rica are just as sweet. :) One of my besties finally graduated from college and so, as a gift, her parents have decided to take her and a good friend (a.k.a Monifahhh! - me) to Costa Rica. ((Delta buddy passes rock.)) It's so exciting because (A) it's Costa Rica and (B) this is totally last minute. I love adventures!

Being in my mid-20s, I know it's only natural to be having discussions with my girls about relationships/guys, the frustrations/qualities that give him a grade of 'fail' or 'pass.' Thinking back on my past experiences and guys that I currently know, I have come up with a list of Man Loathings. And so, here is Monica's List of Qualities in a man that make me say "No, thank you."

- smoking, that's just nasty.
- a guy who is significantly skinnier. If it appears that I could eat more food than you or it looks like I could beat you up, not so attractive.
- thinks up scenarios under which he would "leave his wife" (yeah, that's really funny. . . )
- someone who takes longer than you to get ready and pays more attention to fashion than you do
- a man who has a very tiny group of friends (like 1 or 2) and everyone else just seems to hate him
- highly emotionally unstable and must have you around every single moment of every freaking day
- any guy that drives a BMW
- constantly says, "She's so hot" every single time multiple girls' names comes up (we got it the last time you said it and we definitely don't care to hear it again - it's just getting annoying)
- a guy who isn't driven at all = a complete bum
- high level of immaturity; No, you are no longer 17 years old.
- he doesn't make you feel like a woman; no respect and no regard

Whoops, I'm sorry. Did I just rule out every single guy on planet Earth??

I know it's ridiculously late to be up and blogging, but I can't sleep because I'm Cathy Crampsalot and drugs don't mix so well with the bit of alcohol still left in my system so leave me the *expletive* alone. Okay - hormones readjusting. . . so Dorothy (one of my bestest of best buds) and I went to a Sara Bareilles concert tonight. I absolutely love hanging out with this crazy girl. We definitely don't act very mature and are often mistaken for high schoolers . . . whoops. 

First, we met up for some dinner at Taqueria del Sol which has the most delicious shrimp corn chowder in the entire solar system (yes, I've checked each and every planet). Then we headed down the streets of the dirtydirty (aka Atlanta) to Little Five Points. We got there a tad early so Dorothy and I decided to have some fun with a camera (a few pieces of evidence to your right).

But back to Bareilles. . . that woman has got voice. I first heard her music over a year ago and got hooked to every single one of her songs. I took a couple of videos during the concert but I'm not going to post them up here because if you want to hear the music, check iTunes. However, for the one or two of you Sara B. fans that read my blog, I'll post a special video just for you. It's a video of Sara singing "Genie In a Bottle." Yes - hilarious. You probably had to read that last sentence two or three times more. Quite random.

Warning: I lack major video skills, so this video's sole purpose is for your listening enjoyment.

Rachael Yamagata and David Ford were her opening acts - 2 other quite talented artists. Rachael rocked it out and David Ford's voice - mighty sexy. Could you imagine marrying a man with an amazing voice? He'd totally screw something up then I'd get pissed off and go into my genetically predispositioned nagging mode. He'd break out into a love song and I'd melt and forget what I was yelling about. If only.  

So last night I was hanging out with some college friends I hadn't seen in awhile. One of my friends just got a Honda S2000 and asked me, "Would you like to drive it?" Of course, not being a complete idiot (and at this moment being super grateful that my Dad made me drive manuals all these years) I said, "Are you sure? You'll let me drive it?" while inside I was screaming "Heck YES!"

Honda S2000

On to a completely unrelated topic/side-note: I finally know what I'm going to do with my life . . . I think. It only took me 25 years, a bachelor's degree and a buttload of student loans to figure it out. I finally got an official acceptance letter to nursing school. I am going to be super poor for the next few years, but I'm okay with that. I'll just put myself into gold-digger mode, find a rich doctor and get him to buy me a S2000. :) I totally and completely kid. I actually joked about that with my mom and she turned into Pissy Missy telling me that I'm such a horrible person! Horrible, horrible!!!! Why, you may ask, would a silly gold-digger joke piss my asian, hardcore-rule-following mom off? She intensely believes that "every joke has truth in it." **hands covering face in total frustration**

This is your friendly public service announcement for drivers everywhere. . .

traffic light

This is a traffic light. It's a pretty common sight to see around town. You may have seen them around or, if you really suck at driving, you don't notice these at all. A traffic light displays 3 different colors. What do these colors stand for, you ask?! Well, let me show you!

Green Light

This is the color green. Green means 'proceed' or 'continue driving.' Green means go!
Yellow (not pictured) can be interpreted to mean many things to many people. Yellow can mean 'slow down, red is about to get all crazy up in yo' grill' or, for the majority of American drivers, yellow means 'speed up very, very, very quickly because if you don't make this light, the world is going to end!!!'

Red Light

This is the color red. Red means 'stop or you's about to get yo'self in big ass trouble!'

So yes, you may have inferred from my sarcasm and slight annoyance that this PSA was inspired by recent events. I got into my first car wreck Thursday night. Most definitely not the coolest experience of my life. I was driving through a major intersection when a guy ran a red light and smacked into my passenger's side, pushing me into oncoming traffic. Thankfully, the cars in the opposing lanes had stopped and no further . . .uhh . . .adventure was encountered. Nobody got hurt - praise God! - and the guy totally admitted that he was at fault...and he asked for my digits ;-) whoo hoo!! (Okay, so it was for insurance purposes.)

My car is totaled and I am now carless. Right now, insurance is my hero but it's just going to be a pain to get all the necessary filing/paperwork junk completed. And then, I have to start looking for some mighty fine transportation (do I hear the ringing of a little bicycle bell?!?) I guess I should listen to my mom and always think on the bright side - "you get a better car now." And so, I must say 'goodbye' to Mr. Car, now. It's been an awesome 206,000 miles. . .

A fond college memory of a friend's practical joke.

An amazing woman in our church recently found out that her breast cancer has returned and metastasized (spread). The youth group in our church wanted to come up with a way to display our commitment to pray for her and her family through this time in her life. (You better believe we're praying hardcore for her healing!)  So, the boys decided to shave their heads and the girls decided on dying a section of hair pink (pink = breast cancer awareness color). These are a group of some pretty amazing youth.

So I've heard of this artist a few months ago but never really got the chance to check her out until just recently. She is a multi-talented musician with a quality voice. Her songs all tell a little story (in stark contrast to such meaningful, deeply-rooted words of intelligence found in lyrics today including "Apple bottom jeans, boots with the furrrr, furrrrrr . . got da whole club lookin' at herrrr, herrrr" - Okay so that song is pretty fun to dance to but I'm talking lyrics here!!) So check her out, if you're a fan in the area of Sara Bareilles, Colbie Caillat, or Marie Digby, I think you might like Priscilla Ahn (myspace or sample her songs on iTunes).

Priscilla Ahn

Exotic Coconut Goodness

This ridiculous mix of cold/rainy/hot/nasty randomness of weather that we've been having down here is quite annoying. A tornado in the city of Atlanta? wtf?! Get warm already. Summer, I beg you, please come quickly. I went to Bath & Body Works and picked up some "Exotic Coconut" hand soap to try and trick my body into thinking that it's just about summer. It's fantastic - the smell makes me think of the beach every time I wash my hands. I love it.

I haven't been on too many adventures the past few weeks because my days are pretty much the same: super busy. Classes, working/tutoring, church youth, studying. It's good though. I've been in a position where I had basically nothing to do and now realize that being really busy > being wickedly bored.
  

Wedding Bliss

A couple weeks ago I went up to Jersey to see my little sister and her new hubby. Say it with me now, "Awww." They're really cute, like 2 pieces of a puzzle that fit together perfectly. We hit up NYC and Philly. I also must admit that I am no longer a Wii virgin (please note that Wii virgin ≠ tiny virgin). I guess I'm slightly behind on the times but I was living in a different country when the Wii came out so I have a valid excuse. People get you awesome gifts when you get hitched - aside from a Wii, a gigantic flat screen tv.

My next great adventure won't be until summer. My best bud Mindy and I are pondering the idea that we ought to celebrate her 25th in Vegas. "Great idea," you say?! I concur.

Show us the best email you received during the past couple of days.

Email

Nice arms? I'm in. Hook a desperate* sistah UP!!

*joke. I'm not desperate. Not yet anyways. Wait until my 30th birthday comes along, then ask me if "desperate" has embedded itself into my vocabulary.