Yesterday was really the first day in a few days that I felt good, which I’m so thankful for, since I had tickets to see one of my favorite bands, Matchbox Twenty, with my best friend, Amy!

Here we are right outside Hard Rock Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood:

And here’s a shot from the concert. That glowing figure is the fabulous Rob Thomas, who was in top form last night!

Amy and I have seen MB20 and Rob several times. For me, the count is only about six, but Amy has seen them 12 times! We’ve both been backstage and cherish those memories!

Back in college, when I wrote and did concert photography for the UCF Independent (yes, I attended the University of Central FL for two years before moving up to UF), I got press passes for a set of Matchbox shows and was able to photograph the band for my review. You can read that review, here on my blog: Matchbox Twenty Sets Florida on Fire. Hard to believe I wrote that article 12 years ago!!

I couldn’t help digging in the garage and finding some of my old concert photos from my MB20 concert weekend in April 2001. I was NOT a professional photographer back then (I was just a college freshman!), but thanks to my press passes, I was right there with the big guys, shooting with my little Olympus Zoom Point and Shoot camera! I spent a small fortune on film that weekend, but it was totally worth it, and an experience I will absolutely treasure forever.

Before I finish my post about last night, here are some pics of Rob from 12 years ago, since I don’t have any close ups from last night. Note, bucket list item: get press passes to another Matchbox show again, so I can photograph it with my big, bad, professional camera.

Anyway — back to yesterday’s concert! I always enjoy seeing shows at Hard Rock. Stadium shows are ok, but I like a smaller venue and unless you’re seeing a band at a club (let’s face it, those days are probably over for me since all the bands I like now have pretty much made it big now, lol), the smallest venue we have here that is decent is going to be Hard Rock Live. The sound is always pretty good, it’s not far from my house, and we can usually get pretty good seats.

As for our seats last night, we were not on the floor, but might as well have been since we were in the first row of the risers in the back. I was pretty thrilled with where we were sitting!

Amy and I were so happy with the set list. Lots of our favorite songs, both old and new. Here it is, 3/13/13:

Parade
Bent
Disease
She’s So Mean
How Far We’ve Come
3AM
Real World
Girl Like That
If You’re Gone
Overjoyed
All Your Reasons
Long Day
I Will
Unwell
Radio/Stay With Me
So Sad So Lonely
English Town
The Way
Bright Lights
Sleeping at the Wheel

Encore:
Put Your Hands Up
Back 2 Good
Don’t Change
Push

Some standout moments for me were the little 1996 interlude starting with 3AM and ending with If You’re Gone. Rob sounds just as good as he did back then! Also loved Kyle singing on Stay With Me and The Way, and I loved the new coffee house style arrangement they did with Unwell. As always, Long Day is one of my absolute favorites live, as was Push, and I simply adored hearing So Sad So Lonely and English Town. To me, those songs were just really good live.

It’s also so much fun just listening to Rob talk about the songs – one of the songs in particular, the whole venue was just buzzing listening to him speak, the song “Radio.” Rob talked about how back in the day he’d listen to the radio for hours and hours, finger hovering over the play and record button, just waiting for his favorite songs to come on the radio, then waiting for the annoying DJ to just shut up so he could start recording the song… and once his favorites were all recorded, he’d compile a mix tape of his favorites. It was something we all could totally relate to and brought us all right back to growing up in the 90′s.

Towards the end, Rob announced that they’d be touring this summer with the Goo Goo Dolls, another of my and Amy’s favorites from back in the day. Yay, another concert to look forward to!

—

Music has ALWAYS been important to me. Growing up, I listened to great musicians and bands with my dad, like Gloria Estefan (who inspired me to learn Spanish AND play guitar in middle school), and Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac (who inspired me to learn to write poetry in high school). Every single day on the drive to school, my dad and I would listen to “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac. The song was about six and a half minutes long — the same length as the drive to school.

In college, I continued with my love of music by helping to start a student-run radio station with a group of my friends — Knightcast at the University of Central Florida. I had my own radio show for two years and played all kinds of music, show casing my favorite songs and bands. I also wrote for the college newspaper as a concert reviewer and was able to attend, photograph, and review concerts by Matchbox Twenty, Ani DiFranco, Fuel, and more. I had such an amazing time and that period of my life remains one of my favorite music-related memories.

Now that I have my own family, I hope to instill the same love of music in my kids. My husband and I enjoy many varieties of music – from Aerosmith to Muse to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra!  And we are always listening to music in the car with both of our boys. Our older boy loves to sing and play on our piano, and our five month old finds music to be extremely calming and “sings” along with his goo-goo-ga-gas in the car – so I think we are on the right track to raising boys who “ROCK” and love music as much as we do!

Zachary “playing” the piano

Does your family rock, too? Hyundai Santa Fe and Rolling Stone are looking for awesome families who rock – whose values include kindness, sharing, mischief, singing together, playing together, and loads more! If you think you qualify, head on over and enter the contest! Make sure you watch the video while you’re there, too! You’ll need to upload a picture of your family and explain in no more than 500 words how much you rock. Prizes include a photo shoot in Rolling Stone featuring the winning family shot by an industry photographer, airfare, hotel and transportation to the 55th Grammy Awards, and a fully tricked-out Hyundai Santa Fe custom rock ‘n’ roller. The contest ends December 14th, 2012.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

My 10th year of age brought a love of all things related to Gloria Estefan and her music. I’d heard her music on the radio or at a party and simply fell in love with it! I’d never been interested in pop music before, but everything was about to change.

Gloria and her music inspired me to write my own songs, start taking Spanish classes in school, and even learn how to play the guitar. She was really a very formative part of my  pre-teen and early teenage years. I also thought it was pretty cool that she had a son who was about my age and that she lived here in Miami, not far from where I lived, so I found her to be a very relatable person and loved reading stories about her in the newspaper and in magazines (since that’s how we got our news back in the 90′s… lol).

Of course, 20 years later we are all in the digital age. I follow Gloria on Twitter and Facebook. So last week, when I replied back to one of Gloria’s tweets that I liked her new hairstyle, I never expected to get a response back. She gets tons of replies each day from her fans. But, she replied to me! I was so thrilled! It really made my day!

All of my twitter replies are set to send me a text message, so you can imagine how stoked I was to receive this text! I will always remember that moment and how fun it was to get a message from an artist who has inspired me for basically my entire life!

Here is a photo of us the day after our wedding (photo taken by my dad). I remember how excited and happy we were to be heading off on our honeymoon cruise!

I love you, Adrian – here’s to another 3 million days!

Seeing as the baby was just about three weeks old, we had a relaxing day at home.

Zachary made me a cake out of play-doh:

My parents stopped by and gave me a gorgeous sterling silver necklace representing my two boys (from the Spanish designer Tous). I love it and have been wearing it every day!

And no photo, but later that evening, Adrian and Zachary made me an AMAZING dinner with grilled slider hamburgers, baked beans, and other goodies.

The next day, my best friend Amy came over and brought me a yummy cookie cake and and a beautiful watch from Fossil for my birthday!

I had a pretty great birthday this year with so many thoughtful gifts. A few weeks ago when my mother-in-law and sister-in-law were here to visit, they also got me a sewing machine, which is something I’ve wanted for a while, so that was also exciting! My other best friend, Tamara, also sent me a fabulous care package with some amazing nail polishes among other things (more on that below)!

All in all, my 30th birthday ended up being a wonderful day spent with my boys and was a great start to the next decade in my life!

I also wanted to mention my 30 before 30 list, the list of all the things I’d hoped to accomplish before turning 30. Did I do everything? Nope! Am I okay with it? Yes. There were a lot of big-ticket items on there, like reducing my business debt by half and making my house seem organized in the eyes of my mother, who is probably the most organized person alive. While I honestly didn’t expect either of those to be completed by my 30th birthday (I’m sure my mom is reading this and laughing, lol!!), I do feel like I made some progress and am headed in the right direction, which is a good thing.

I also did a few things which were important to me, but NOT on my 30 before 30 list because I didn’t feel like locking myself into them and wanted to see how they went on their own.

The first thing was losing nearly all of my pregnancy weight, something I didn’t expect to do so quickly. After I had Zachary, I strictly followed the “9 months on, 9 months off” saying when it came to losing the baby weight. It just didn’t happen fast for me then. This time, though, all of my weight fell off instantly! William is six weeks old and I’m just 4lb away from my pre-pregnancy weight, and already fitting into my pre-pregnancy jeans. I’m pretty amazed by the progress that I have made and I’m so excited to be back on track with dieting and losing weight. I needed to lose weight before I got pregnant anyway, so I really feel like I’m ahead of the game now. Of course, losing the next big chunk of weight probably won’t happen fast…. but at least I’m back to my starting point.

Second, I’ve stopped biting my nails. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but I’ve been a nail biter as long as I can remember. It’s a horrible, nasty habit and I’ve struggled for years to quit. I remember periods in high school where I would stop and start, stop and start. I never thought that I would have nice nails unless I paid to have acrylics put on every week at the salon. The silly thing is that every time I had acrylics and my nails grew out, they’d always be so ruined from the acrylic that I would end up biting them again.

Some time in May I happened to come across a nail polish blog. Not sure how or which one, but I saw the photos of the nails and the fun designs and realized it was time to take back control and end the habit for good. I went to the store and picked out some fun new nail polish colors and decided to keep my nails polished constantly. It worked! As long as my nails were constantly polished, I was not biting them. As soon as there was any tip wear or chipping (usually the same time that I’d begin to have the urge to bite again), I had to switch polish, which meant every 3 days or so. I am at the point now where I do not need my nails to be polished 100% of the time anymore to keep myself from biting them, but I prefer to have nicely polished nails.

I’m really proud of this photo – it’s the progression from May to June to July. You can see my teeny little nails the first day I painted them, to the pink polish I put on the week that William was born, to the turquoise manicure I did the week of my birthday (thanks Tamara for the awesome Deborah Lippmann blue glitter polish!)

So, overall I am pretty thrilled with my birthday, happy I got to spend the weekend with my family and my best friend, and happy that I accomplished some things that were really meaningful to me. I hope the next 10 years of my life are as fun and exciting as the past ten years have been, and I look forward to the ride!

If you asked me 4 years ago what was in my makeup bag, I would have been able to tell you. Because I actually used a makeup bag back then! However, then I had Zachary and suddenly my purse was replaced by a gigantic diaper bag filled with baby stuff, and very little of my own things. Nowadays, even though I use a regular purse again (though not for long…. I dug the diaper bag out again the other day), I still don’t carry makeup with me other than a bit of lipgloss!

While cleaning out my office a few weeks ago, I actually found my old makeup bag that I used to keep in my purse, and am going to reclaim it for diaper bag use since I do need something to hold MY things after the baby is here.

While I only tend to carry the basics in my makeup bag (a powder, a lipgloss or two, some eyeliner and lipliner), I do have a good collection of makeup and enjoy wearing it.

Here are some of my favorite products:

Face – For a moisturizer, I like Number 7 day cream which I bought at Target. It has a nice smell and makes my face feel good. As far as makeup goes, I use Covergirl’s Natureluxe foundation. I have tried lots of expensive foundations over the years, and many of them either felt heavy or didn’t look even on me. I decided to pick up some Covergirl after seeing a friend wear it and I was totally sold. I really love this foundation. It’s light and easy to apply. If I’m not wearing foundation, I tend to use MAC’s Studio Fix since it gives me a very good coverage.

Cheeks – I use Covergirl for my blush, too. I like the Peach Perfection instant cheekbones contouring blush. I actually use this blush all over. The middle color, I actually use on my cheeks. The two other colors, I tend to use as eyeshadows! I also own some of MAC’s Skinfinish powders which are very glimmery and pretty.

Lips – I get chapped lips a lot and like either using Burt’s Bees or I wear a lipgloss. Lately I’ve been enjoying a few of the colors from Rimmel London. They have a nice formulation that feels good on and isn’t too light or too heavy. For lip liner, I tend to stick with MAC  - their color, “spice” is an old favorite, and I have a couple other random ones that I use on occasion. I don’t actually wear that much lip liner.

Eyes – I pretty much only use MAC eyeshadows. Love the pigmentation and long-lasting quality. For eyeliner, I have a few MAC liners as well as a couple of Rimmel’s liners which have a glittery look to them. For mascara, I love Covergirl’s Lash Blast Fusion! Again, I have tried a number of different types of mascara and CG wins, hands down.

Nails – I’ve been a nail biter for years and I’m trying hard to grow my nails out right now…. which means I have to keep them polished ALL. THE. TIME. Seriously, all the time. If I even feel the urge to gnaw on my fingers, I have to go change my polish to get rid of that nagging feeling. changing polish so often is a little annoying but it’s worth it to have longer nails! As far as polish goes, I’m a big fan of anything that glitters or shimmers! I’ve been using OPI and Essie for years, and probably own the most of those shades. For a base coat, I use CND Stickey or Essie’s protein base, and for a topcoat, I’ve been using Seche Vite, it gives such a great glossy finish!

Here’s a picture of one of my crazy nail combinations that I’ve done recently. This is Revlon’s Blue Mosiac over Loreal’s Club Prive:

Today’s blog challenge prompt is to post an old photo of myself. I’m not sure exactly how old the prompt is looking for…. but I found some pictures of me from right after I started dating Adrian 10 years ago, and thought I would post one, because I think I look cute. :)

Here I am playing on Adrian’s computer at his Winter Park apartment:

In my photo software, the date on this image is July 10th, 2002. Adrian and I had only been dating for 10 days! I was only 19 years old. :) I can’t believe we will be celebrating our 10th anniversary together this summer!

If you look around you’ll find some vintage early 2000′s items such as…. gigantic CRT monitors, enormous looking web cam, old school AIM chats on the left side monitor, livejournal on the right side monitor, and my Nokia cell phone, which I thought was so awesome back in the day!

The photo was taken with Adrian’s then-fabulous Kodak DC260, which was released in 1997!

I’ve always loved to read – an obsession that started when I was very little.

When I was very little, I loved Golden Books – especially books about animals. My family likes bunnies a lot, and this one carries many wonderful memories:

When I was a little older, I remember loving the books by Stephen Cosgrove — Serendipity, Trapper, Leo the Lop, Misty Morgan, and many, many others. They were popular in the late 80′s and early 90′s, and are now very difficult to find. I think I may still have a few of my favorites left at my parents’ house, but I’m not sure. You can read more about them on Cosgrove’s website.

Another series from the late 80′s that I loved was Whisper the Winged Unicorn. The image below is from Amazon, and I seem to remember having the books that included the stickers, but the only ones I still have on my bookshelf (in mint condition, actually) are Curse of the Dragon and Journey to Julie’s Heart.

Of course, when I was in elementary school, I graduated to the Baby-Sitter’s Club and Sweet Valley series. I was hooked on those for years.

Another series I loved was The Secret of the Unicorn Queen. They came out in the late 80′s and 90′s, but I didn’t read them until middle school – around 1993 or so. This is what the first book, Swept Away, looks like. This series was amazing and inspired my love of fantasy stories. I still own all 6 books and they are in near-mint condition.

I also was very into mythology and learning about other cultures. Two books I loved were The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (this book is a classic – if you haven’t read it, you should!) and Sisters, Long Ago by Peg Kehret.

That’s just a few of the books I loved as a child. I was a very avid reader and still have many of my favorite childhood books on my bookshelf. I’m so happy that Zachary loves books, too, and look forward to seeing the kinds of books that he likes to read as he gets older.

Today’s prompt is easy… what are my favorite foods?

1. Cheese – one of the best snacks ever… and you can even eat it on its own as a meal :) I like crazy cheeses, like the ones infused with truffle oil… amazing!
2. Pizza – really any kind of pizza. I am a big pizza fan.
3. Milano cookies – I’ve loved these since I was a little girl. My grandpa always used to give them to me when I was small.
4. Pumpkin – I absolutely love pumpkin in anything, and get excited every fall when the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte comes out! only a few more months to go! ;)
5. Pasta (especially really filling pasta like gnocchi or ravioli…and with alfredo sauce, mmm)
6. Bagels & cream cheese! This is a staple at our home.
7. Green bean casserole – my mom makes this at Thanksgiving and other holidays. I could eat it every day, seriously.
8. Sushi – especially anything with eel
9. Mexican food – I love enchiladas and fish tacos the most. And anything with tortilla chips, guacamole, etc. It can be any variety of Mexican…. fresh-mex, tex-mex…. any kind of Mexican-ish food, and I’m there :)
10. Frozen grapes – I’ve been eating frozen grapes for years and I love them, especially when I’m trying to diet or eat healthier. Eating them frozen reminds me of ice cream, and they’re SO good!
11. Key lime – I know I’m breaking the rules by adding a #11, but I really love Key Lime anything! Pie, cake, cookies… it doesn’t matter… I’m there.

I also really love almost any “ethnic foods” – while Mexican and sushi are probably my favorites, I also enjoy Italian dishes, Indian foods, Thai, Korean, and lots more. I love flavor and love trying nearly anything.

My dad, who is an amazing cook, made a point to introduce me to great food from an early age, so I got started on foods like kim-chee (spicy Korean cabbage) when I was really little! I’ve never been afraid to try something new, and I definitely have my father to thank for that!

I also love unique flavors incorporated into foods. My favorites are lavender, honeysuckle, jasmine… anything with that flowery flavor. There’s not a lot of food out there that uses those flavors, it’s definitely more of a gourmet thing that you’ll find in specialty stores or online. But you better believe if I see any kind of lavender candy or cookie, I buy it. ;)

What are your favorite foods?