Goddess of.. Where did November go?

Seriously, where did the past month go?

I wake up suddenly, one crisp-cold morning and, it's December 1st, a Wednesday with yet another newsletter to send out. I read on Facebook about my friends who've just shaved off their Movember mustaches.. and those who've completed NaNoWriMo. The latter being the #1 reason why I didn't blog this past month, I must confess: I failed epically at NaNoWriMo.

I was so determined, but it just did not happen. Projects piled on at work, and that meant extra money.. so I wasn't totally willing to give that up (or the 5 hours of sleep a night, that kept me barely functionning). Also, I didn't have an outline and did not think my "rough idea" of the story I wanted to write would suffice to create a full-on 50,000 word novel. However, I did manage to write well over 36,000 words for my extra projects (SEO optimization texts, for those of you who speak nerd) at work. That's gotta count for something, right? I also managed to hand-in my freelance work on time, every week, despite the extra projects. Go, me!

Now, we're here, on the 4th of December.. the eve of my third bellydance show. I am finishing the freelance work I planned on getting done last night but finally had to postpone due to the arrival of some family friends' first grandson last night: Welcome to the world, baby M!

Did I ever mention that I don't really like newborns? All tiny, fresh-out-of-the-womb, fragile newborns.. don't make me go Awww or Ouhhh.. and I don't think they're cute. Give me a chubby/chunky 2 year old and I'll go nuts.. but those still covered in goo, not so much. Anywowzer, I digress.

My first show, Dec. 2009

Bellydance tomorrow should be fun, got friends coming: Violet, Lolita and Frantz will all be there, along with Mom. 

It's a bit of a big deal for me to invite more than 1 friend.. as Violet and Frantz have never seen me dance in person. But they are both great friends so I don't feel too shy to dance in front of them (and 200-300 strangers). Plus, this semester, I am performing with the most advanced bellydancer group at my dance studio so I nervous, but somewhat proud :)

Talk to you soon, 

Love XOXO

Goddess of .. Twenty-five candles !

On Saturday, May 8th 2010 .. I celebrated my long awaited (and kinda dreaded) 25th birthday.

Well, to be exact, I celebrated my very last day & night being 24 years old because my birthday is May 9th. Seriously, I wasn't going to just slip into my mid-twenties without mourning my early twenties an itsy bit. Except that it wasn't so much a "mourning" as it was a "celebration of life".. but I digress.

I definitely had a wonderful time on saturday and

I hope that my birthday celebrations are a reflection of

how much fun the next year is going to be

because I had a BLAST!

First, there were drinks and appetizers at my place. Lolita, Violet and the whole bunch of my girlfriends from high school were there.. about 10 of us crazies in all.

Mandatory rosé wine or sparkling pink lemonade for everyone.. alongside some delicious appetizers (arancinis, veggies & dip, all kinds of cheese, puff pastry hors d'oeuvres, etc.).

I was showered with gifts from my extremely generous friends (gift cards, beauty products, scarf, purse, chocolates, etc.).

By the way, I'm totally aware that posting pictures with stickers on everyone's face is pretty much pointless but I worry about anonymity.. so here goes. I hope it still gives you a vague notion of how much fun we had :o)

I was super happy that all the girls from the high school bunch made it .. because 3 of them weren't suppose to come until later.. but finally, they were able to make it !!!

It made all the difference in the world, I was so glad to have all of them over at my house because we rarely do this and mostly meet up in restaurants or at the movies.

I also got to spend some really fun times with Lolita & Violet. They hadn't seen each other since .. sometime in February or March.. when we went out to one of our favorite bars and ended up crashing attending a stranger's birthday party around 3-4 am.

It was fun to see them kind of catch up and mingle.

Afterwards, we headed to my favorite thai restaurant around 9pm, for a late dinner. I ordered one of my usuals .. the sweet & sour chicken (tomatoes, onions, red and green bell peppers & pineapple) with sticky rice. Lolita enjoyed my other favorite, the sauteed chicken with peanut sauce & crispy spinach .. so delicious !

I bought a delicious cake (tasted like Ferrero Rocher or Bacci chocolates) that I brought to the restaurant and they served it to us as dessert.

The staff was so nice and funny .. they were really young and friendly to us, they even switched my candles on the cake when they brought it out and it read : Happy 52nd birthday Aritza !!

They put them back in the right order when they served me my piece of cake thought, thank God.

I'm having a hard enough time dealing with being 25 .. there's no way I want to skip to 52 right away.

Once we were done with dinner, I said goodbye to my highschool friends .. who are not at all the type to go out to bars .. and Violet, Lolita & Myself headed to our home (the bar that Violet & I often go to on thursday nights). We've developped a sort of customer-friendship with the bartenders there .. so they were happy we stopped by for my birthday. I was offered a complimentary glass of bubbly from one bartender and another one offered us a celebratory round of shots (Jack Daniels topped with a slice of orange, the usual). All in all, a very good time !

We then met up with Ari and his friends, Frantz and David, at another bar nearby.

Violet, Lolita, Myself, Ari, Frantz and David had a really really fun time and all of them made it a birthday that I'll never forget. I had met Frantz before (super funny and super friendly guy) and I had heard a little bit about David (funny and sarcastic, self-proclaimed asshole) before through Lolita.

At the bar, David proceeded to yell at the barman to get me free shots for my birthday .. it was super rude and I thought he was a real asshole.. but it worked and I think he actually knew the barman or became friends with him afterwards .. so no real harm done there. Dr.Frantz spoon-fed me Jack Daniels & Coke as a cure to aging.. and it was hilarious.

Frantz, David and I talked and joked all night long and it was really cool.

Anywowzer, that's it my lovelies. Oh and Frantz wrote his phone number on a coaster and slipped it in my purse.. lol, I really cracked up when I got home and saw this. I sent him a little text message to thank him for the great evening and I added him on facebook. Such great people, I've really been blessed lately .. I've met such funny people, it's wonderful !

That was my birthday night, bloggies !

It certainly lived up to my standards of fun :o)

and I hope it lived up to your standards of an interesting blog post !!

Goddess of .. Charming Rebecca Giveaway Winner !

 Good morning, Bloggies ! How was your weekend ?

I hope it was as fun as mine :o)

  

I spent my friday night with a bunch of my girlfriends (and two of their boyfriends)
at a Brasilian restaurant we'd been wanting to try for a while !  

The food was wonderful : All-you-can-eat 10 sorts of meat grilled on charcoal (pork sausages, chicken , turkey wrapped in bacon, roast pork, top sirloin, strip sirloin, flat sirloin, contre-filet, rib of beef, rib steak, filet mignon, lamb, etc.), served with all-you-can-eat mixed greens salad, sweet potatoes, rice and sauteed mushrooms ! Delicious !! One after the other, the waiters came to our table with a different type of meat and they would slice it fresh in our plates, it was so fun and the meat was juicy !

And dessert : Grilled pineapple with cinnamon or vanilla ice cream, + coffee or tea !

Oh and we can't forget the entertainment : Samba dancers !

Then, on saturday night, I was expecting to start entering the data / entries for the Charming Rebecca giveaway in an Excel spreadsheet .. yes, those were my totally exciting typical saturday plans. However, around 11pm, my friend Violet called me and we decided to go out for drinks ! We had such a blast, good conversation, good drinks and we met some cool people :o)

And on sunday afternoon, I met up with Violet again : We walked around town for about an hour, fed peanuts to some squirrels and pigeons (Yes, we're totally aware that we are strange pigeon ladies, à la Home Alone, lol.) and then, we stopped for lunch (warm vegetable soup & swiss cheese burger).

On the walk back home, we stopped at the park and enjoyed the sun a little. It was laid-back, relaxing and very fun ! Who said crazy pigeon ladies can't have fun ?!

....................................................................................

You've been very patient, listening to me yap-yap-yap away about my weekend and my pigeons ! Unless you just skipped to this part, either way, I love you and I thank you for visiting my blog. But if you read the whole thing, I love you more. Also, I wanted say thanks for entering the giveaway .. I had WAY more entries than I ever thought possible and hopefully, you enjoyed discovering Charming Rebecca's items !! After spending hours on Excel, entering all your comments / entries to the giveaway, I have the results of the Charming Rebecca giveaway for you.. drumroll, please !

The lucky winner of one item of your choice
from Charming Rebecca's Etsy store is :

The wonderfully sweet and inspiring

Summer @ "B" is for... Brown, Breathe & Believe !

Congrats girl ! Now the fun begins, picking your new piece of jewelry :o)

Thank you all for participating !
Don't forget to enter this week's giveaway, there's more stuff to win..

Goddess of .. A simple math lesson with Aritza !

Lawyers are renowned for being great mathematicians ! Uhmmmmmmmmm.. NOT.

However, one thing we are good at is : Alcohol. This skill was developed through enduring several years of Law School. True Story. Click here for scientific proof.

For example, Lolita (who is also a lawyer) 's dad is a profesionnal wine-taster / specialist (remember his wine cellar?). He will be working at the "Wine & Spirits show" next weekend and asked his beloved daughter to give him a hand. Lolita will be pouring wine samples to strangers from noon to 9pm. And now, this is where it gets interesting, her dad asked her if she would like to be paid "in cash" or "in wine".

Her answer : "In wine, of course !"

Her logic : Rather than getting paid about 100$ in cash, they'll give her 100$ worth of wine at cost price. That could be roughly about 12 bottles. Plus, if she's ever short on cash .. 100$ wouldn't go a long way but wine, on the other hand, would totally help her forget she's short on cash. It's pure genius.

100% pure lawyer math & logic

I began doing some math of my own yesterday. You know, just to keep my brain active during my weeks months of unemployment.

I started off with things I'm familiar with :

Gin + tonic water + slice of lime = Gin & Tonic

Lychee liqueur + vodka + a few lychees = Lychee Martini

This boosted my morale and I figured it was time to try something new :

Sparkling wine (perhaps champagne) + peach purée = Bellini 

Now I've heard about Bellinis through many, many of you bloggies but I have yet to try one. I'm super excited and I've enlisted the help of my dear friend Violet (not a lawyer but she's in law enforcement / immigration so it's all good, lol) to get on this mission as quickly as possible. I will report to you as soon as we do !

Speaking of Violet.. she and I had a movie night last night. We bought lots of veggies, dip, chips and chocolate. Added a nice bottle of red wine. Watched "Brothers" and "Up in the Air".. both really good movies btw ! It was an awesome evening, filled with drinking, eating and drooling over hot men.

I'll leave you with one last math equation :

Red wine + an awesome friend + the hawtness of Jake Gyllenhaal =

 Best. Evening. Ever !

This guy doesn't even have to take off his shirt to be hot ..

.. but I never (ever) protest when he does.

Goddess of .. I'll show you my twins if you show me yours !

I've often been told I look like certain celebrities. Some names have even come up more than once. I take that as the highest compliments .. and well, I got two very high compliments this week so I thought I'd show you my twins (wait, what?!).

Picture for example, if Geri Halliwell, Katherine Heigl, Nicole Kidman and Michelle Trachtenberg had a morph baby (yesss, click it, hours of fun guaranteed).. it would be moi !

{Ginger spice latte, hold the ginger}

{Ouuhh so pretty.. I blush, I blush}

{I'm hoping people were refering to her pre-witcherific years}

{Maybe if I squint really hard .. I can kinda see it}

This past sunday night, when he first saw some of my pictures, Benji immediatly said .. "Hey! You look like that spice girl, the redhead."

And this morning, I get a text message from my girl friend Violet saying "Ohmygod ! Google Michelle Trachtenberg, U guys R twins !!!!".

Needless to say, I had a good week, lol.

Happy weekend bloggies !!!

P.S. Here's the result of the Heigl-Kidman-Haliwell-Trachtenberg morph baby .. it turns out .. it doesn't quite look like me .. lol, go figure !