4 Years Ago Today

Hi friends!!

First of all, let's just get the awkwardness out of the way...I am soo sorry for being such a shitty MIA blogger. The past year has been sooo busy and the last couple months have been no exception. Between my legal work, my involvement with myStorey  (join now to check it out!!), and my personal styling through Mint+Chase, I have been swamped!! There are very few better feelings in the world, however, than feeling needed and appreciated. These past few months have been the absolute most satisfying to me professionally, and I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunity to work alongside some really awesome people. The downside though, is that I have had less time to blog...but I'm back now for a little "hey there, how you doin'?" :)

I also wanted to drop by to share my thoughts on marriage, seeing as today is Dr. Love and my 4th wedding anniversary, woop woop!!!

My parents divorced when I was 8 years old and, even before then, they did not have a good marriage. Before meeting Dr. Love, I spent my entire life observing relationships. I imagine that children of great marriages (my mom being one of them) don't feel the need to make such an intentional effort to analyze other people's relationships, but for me, it was always interesting to see what types of dynamics worked and which didn't. Obviously, the concept of what works and what doesn't is entirely subjective, but you see, that is fine in my case, because I wasn't observing for the sake of science, but for the sake of giving myself the best chance at a happy marriage...and life.

Now, as a thirty year old who has been married for 4 years, I can say that I firmly believe that who you choose to marry (or whether you choose to marry at all) is the single most important decision that you will ever make in your life. It will change the trajectory of your life and it will shape the person that you are.

So, that being said, I just want to take a second to thank Dr. Love for giving me the best years of my life thus far. The most fun, most adventurous, most fulfilling years of my life have been those which I have had the pleasure of sharing with Dr. Love. He is my biggest cheerleader and biggest critic, a hardworking man that has taught me the importance of hard work, and a flexible, open-minded person who has been willing to bend often to see things from my perspective. For all those reasons and more, I love Dr. Love more today than I ever imagined I could...And I think that if I were a young girl from a broken family right now looking at Dr. Love and my marriage, I'd label it "works." Love you, Dr Love

On that note, let me share one of my favorite songs of all time with you...such beautiful lyrics...

x

Weekend Happenings

Ah, what a wonderful laughter and friend/family filled weekend we had!

Dr. Love and I got back home late last night after a weekend visiting my family in Orange County. As is always the case when we visit OC, the weekend was jam-packed with events, some of my favorite people, and lots of food, drinks, and laughter.

We also listened to the two songs below at least 20 times each :) Sooooo good and two of my current faves!

We got to spend a ton of time with my big bro and his girlfriend. We went to bed at around 1am on Sunday morning and woke up only hours later to get ready to head out to the soccer field to watch my brother, Dr. Love, my brother-in-law, and a few friends play soccer. The morning was chilly, overcast, and drizzly, and my brother's girlfriend, my sister-in-law and I were cold and exhausted from the early wake-up, but we still managed to have the best time sitting on the sidelines and cheering on the boys.

With my brother and his girlfriend :)

 Pre-party at a friend's house before heading out to a Monte-Carlo themed casino night.

Today, as a new week starts, I feel emotionally refreshed. While I am physically exhausted from a nonstpp weekend of fun and activities, I am looking forward to a productive week before Friday comes around and we head to LA to celebrate my sister-in-law's 30th birthday party :).

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend too and that you were able to enjoy some time with your friends and family and doing the things that make you happiest! And for those of you who spent the weekend worrying or stressing about something or anxiously hoping something would go one way rather than another, I offer you the following song. No words have ever rang truer: "Que Sera, Sera, Whatever will be, will be, The future's not ours, to see, Que Sera, Sera, What will be, will be." So simple, yet so full of wisdom!

x

Slow Down, You Crazy Child

Every now and then, I hear a song that really speaks to me. Often, it's not a current chart topper, but rather a timeless classic. The song below falls into this second category. There is just something about Billy Joel's songs that win me over everytime. Vienna is no exception. In fact, when I first heard this song a few weeks ago, I "shhhh'd" Dr. Love just so that I could hear every single lyric...and it was well worth it.

Not a day goes by that my super ambitious friends and I don't discuss how overwhelmed, exhausted, or frustrated we are with our busy schedules/careers. Most of my friends and family are hard workers with big goals. A lot of the time, we are all chasing our goals instead of taking a second to breathe.

When I heard Vienna, I felt like Billy Joel had written the song for me and my friends. It's an awesome song that I hope you love listening to as much as I do.

Enjoy!

My Bad...

Hi friends,

So, it has been brought to my attention by more than one blog follower that I have not posted in a month...insane!! It hasn't felt like that long, but I suppose that is what happens when you're VERY busy.

I know that when I visit a blog that I like only to find that new content hasn't been posted in a looooong time I usually go through the following thought process: Is the blog writer okay? (and then almost instantly to...) Wtf, where the hell is she/he?!

With that being said, I feel that I owe you an explanation. Well, not only have I been suuuuper busy handling client matters in my legal practice (I'm a business transactional and corporate attorney with super busy corporate clients...so, naturally, that translates to lots of work for me, for which I am blessed and thankful for), but I have also been devoting a portion of my free-time to the ACLU as a volunteer attorney. Not only am I loving the the first case that I am working on, but I am also really enjoying the opportunity to work closely with other attorneys. Let's face it, when you're a solo practitioner, work can be a bit lonely at times, so it's always nice when I get to go in to the ACLU offices and discuss fascinating cases with really cool attorneys.

Speaking of lonely, have I ever mentioned that I am the primary house-keeper in our home? I don't didn't mind it at all...until recently. When I wasn't that busy with work, it was pretty easy for me to maintain a clean home. By easy I don't mean easy (as it would usually take me hours upon hours to get the whole house clean), but it wasn't really a challenge, per se. Nowadays, my schedule is so jam packed that I rarely get the chance to devote that many hours at a time to housecleaning. Enter Dr. Love :) Yesterday, he helped me by doing the dishes (which he often helps me with) and vacuuming the entire house (which I'm pretty sure he has never done at this house before). My post-cleaning observations: Dr. Love is a damn good vacuum-er...he is thorough (vacuumed all the base molding/window panes too) and the man does.not.stop. He must have vacuumed for HOURS straight (except for the xbox game stop between vacuuming the downstairs and the upstairs which I requested as I was not yet done preparing the upstairs rooms for vacuuming). Needless to say, I was impressed.

Dr. Love's post-cleaning observations: "we need to hire a cleaning company...," which not only made me laugh, but also made me feel pretty damn awesome for always doing all the housecleaning myself. Needless to say, Dr. Love was impressed. We topped our long day of housecleaning off with burgers and fries at The Counter, after which we returned to our VERY clean home and watched Game of Thrones (obviously).

That's about it friends...below are some recent pics.

 Celebrating Persian New Year at Dr. Love's parents' house.

 My big bro was in town = happy Paris :)

 With Dr. Love and his cousin.

That's it for now...or, based on the roll I've been on, that's if for this month :). J/k...I don't plan on being MIA for that long anymore, but hey, you can only plan so much. Until next time...enjoy this song that I'm digging:

x

This Is The New Year!

The first week of Spring 2013 has been busy and fun around here!!

The sun has been shining, wedding bells have been ringing, and the sound of laughter has been all around. Spring is such a wonderful time to review the past year, set new goals for the coming year, and to start everything fresh! I could not be more excited about the year ahead.

Other than cleaning up the house last week, I have also been cleaning up some other matters. For one, I had a dental cleaning this morning and boy does my mouth feel extra awesome right now. Friends, I highly recommend that you go to a dental cleaning at least once a year (ideally, twice a year). You will save a lot of time, pain, and money in the long run by taking the time to have your teeth checked and cleaned annually. K, enough of the dental hygiene pitch ;)

Another think I've been trying to clean up here is Dr. Love and my diet. We are, generally, pretty healthy people, but, in my opinion, there is always room for improvement. Lately, I have been making sure to take my daily vitamins (Super B-Complex, D3, and Multivitamin), I have almost entirely switched over from coffee to green tea (antioxidants are awwwweeesome!), and I have been hitting up my fitness boot camp 2-3 times a week (which still hasn't stopped the boot camp instructor from teasing me for "taking a bunch of days off in the middle," sigh....). Another big change that I'm working very hard on implementing is switching from outside meals to homemade ones. As my legal practice has gotten busier and busier, I have gotten lazier about preparing homemade meals. That being said, recently, I started taking shortcuts that make preparing homemade meals a whole lot easier. For one, I buy my veggies washed, pre-cut, and prepped for cooking. While the pre-prepped options are pricier than their uncut/unprepared counterparts, they take a lot less time to prepare. As a result, I find that I am more willing to cook a meal at home than to buy something from outside. I also have been buying 4-6 chicken breast fillets and marinating them all on the same day then grilling them as the week goes on. The result is that my prep time is cut down by a lot and by day 3, the chicken is absolutely delicious because it has been marinating for days.

One final way that I have been welcoming Spring is by playing really uplifting music whenever I am in the car or relaxing. Here's a new favorite:

Oh, and here are some recent pics:

 Wore this to a friend's wedding. Dress code was "modern hipster cool."  This is about as "hipster" as I get...which is basically not hipster at all...I guess I just went with the "modern cool" :)

 Recent hair and makeup for meeting...you can almost never go wrong with a chignon.

 The bro and me grabbing brunch at Pelican Hills Resort with Dr. Love and a few friends this past weekend.

Cracking the bro's back while enjoying the Laguna Beach sun...Do NOT try this (the backcracking part...the enjoying the sun part is recommended to all) at home. :)

That's it for this week, friends! Does Spring kick your butt into action, as it does mine? If so, what are some ways that you like to freshen up your life when Spring rolls around?

x

Happy Persian New Year!!!!

Happy Persian New Year, friends!!!

Or better yet, Eideh Nowrooz Mobarak!!!

Because it is Persian New Year, and because yours truly is Persian/Iranian, this week is kind of a big deal around here.

For example, I spent all of last night cleaning and organizing our house..."spring cleaning" takes on a whole new meaning (and is executed a whole lot more thoroughly) when you have been told, ever since you were a very little girl, that the state of your house on Nowrooz (i.e., "new day" referring to the first day of Spring/Persian New Year) sets the tone for the entire year. I cleaned just about everything I could, and then finally gave up when it came time to vacuum. I convinced myself that it is better to enter the new year with high energy, good spirits, and a dirty carpet vs. with the cleanest carpet around, but a pissy/exhausted disposition. I'd like to think that I made the right decision :).

As far as Nowrooz traditions go, two of the biggest ones are "Char-shanbe-soori" (translated loosely to "Wednesday festival of fire") and the Haft Sin (translated to "seven S's"). On Char-shanbe-soori, Persians jump over a fire to "wash away the past year's sorrow, sadness, sins, etc..." Check out this page to learn more about the tradition. In any city where there is a good population of Persians/Iranians, there will be organized bonfire events where people come together to jump over the fire and celebrate together. Ever since Dr. Love and I have been married, we have opted to celebrate at home by jumping over a candle.

Please excuse my gym gear...had to get my exercise in before jumping over the fire to set a good precedent for the new year ;).

 

As far as the haft sin is concerned, it is full of symbolism (much like many Persian traditions and customs, including the Persian wedding spread, "sofreye aghd").  I was really interested to learn more about the symbolism behind the pieces that we include in our New Year's spread, so I did a little research and voila:

Here's a more zoomed out, unobstructed view of the components of the haft sin:

A haft sin also always includes a fish bowl with fish, where the water symbolizes the infinity of the universe, and the fish represent the life that exists in the universe.  As you can tell, we don't have a fishbowl on our haft sin, because being the fish lovers that we are, we have a full aquarium of them!

 

Two of our goldfish, William and Sebastian, are actually fish that we purchased for Persian New Year 2010 (our first as a married couple). They survived living in a fishbowl through Persian New Year, so we decided to buy them a more permanent home in the form of small aquarium. Three years later, they have many additional friends and a much bigger home :). "To infinity and beyond!!!"

 So, there you have it, friends! Your own little Persian New Year 101 course!!

If you celebrate Persian New Year, Eideh Shoma Mobarak!!! If you don't, I hope that today's post has been interesting to you and that you have a wonderful first day of Spring!

x

A Winter's Tale

So, friends, I am sick...again!

Winter sucks. Cold weather sucks. And most of all, colds SUCK!

I have been super busy with legal work (yay!!!), but have also made a little time for fun. Here's a peek at what I've been up to:

Recent work outfit (sorry about the crappy, no-flash quality)

New lazy day hairstyle.

Love my sunglasses' collection, but thinking about investing in a new cat eye pair...any suggestions?

Love vanilla candles

Cheese plate with fruit, dates, jam c/o father-in-law, and port for Dr. Love and I.

 Dr. Love's sweater paired with gold accessories and red lips for girls' night Oscar's viewing party (btw, love J Law...pretend bff all the way)

Oscars fun

Just plain sick now :( (and you're welcome that I stopped at the tissue shot; those that know me well know that I would usually give them a little courtesy boogie shot too :)  After all friends, it's important to always check to see what color your boogie is when you're sick ;) )

So that's about it for this week...here's to hoping that my cold is gone by tomorrow morning so that I can enjoy the BEAUTIFUL weather (80 degrees tomorrow!!!) with Dr. Love and friends. 

Have a great rest of your week and an even better weekend!

x

Silver Linings

Very recently, a dear family member of mine (who I often greeted with a "hello angel!" and who often responded with an even more cheerful, "hello angel!!!") passed away. She was a lovely lady with the loudest, most genuine laugh ever. She was sick and had been for a very long time, nearly two decades. Her passing was deeply painful for all of those who loved her, but it is comforting to know that her pain is, at last, over...a silver lining, I suppose.  I, along with everyone else that knew her, will miss her beautiful soul and laughter forever...

Another silver lining of loss, one that I became familiar with almost a decade ago when my mom passed away, is that losing someone you love reminds you to hold your living loved ones a little bit closer and to love them a little bit louder. I am often comforted by the countless memories I have of telling my mom how much I loved her, how proud of her I was, and how lucky I was to have her as my mom. Knowing that I communicated my love for her often and openly has helped me heal.

Today, I love even louder then I did back then...I remind myself to tell those that I love just how much I love them and to thank those that I'm thankful for as much as possible. I also laugh louder and allow myself to experience uninterrupted/unbridled happiness in those moments when I am blessed with its presence. After all, it is the collection of those moments of joy that make for a lifetime of happiness.

These dear loved ones who leave us do truly become angels...they are angels whose deaths teach us how to truly live.

I will miss you, angel. x

Hump Day Happenings...

Good afternoon, friends!!

I don't have anything particularly exciting for today's post, but I do have some pics. If you guys are anything like me, you won't mind a picture dump versus a verbal dumb today. :)

My go-to casual outfit...white button down shirt, leopard belt, dark blue skinny jeans, gold watch/bracelets. (sorry about the crappy pic quality...)

One of my favorite bday gifts (and one of many from Dr. Love...thank you boo!)...my Jacquie Aiche ear cuff. So delicate and pretty, yet edgy. Will need to take a better quality picture of it soon...

Love this picture of Dr. Love so much...I'm not sure if it's because he looks so natural and in his element, or his cute smirk, or his hand on his stomach. I don't really know. I just know I love it & him.

Now, a picture of me in my element...pre-going out curlers + no makeup...poor Dr. Love!

Gold polish (Tom Ford)+ gold glitter (Forever 21) = girly manicure to the extremely awesome degree.

I don't think I'll ever grow out of my love for glitter...

A birthday pic with my bday twin, Dr. Love's cousin Justin who turned 30 on the same day as me!

Seriously, how cute is my Google Nexus tablet (courtesy of my awesome in-laws)? My mother-in-law, knowing that her daughter-in-law loves all things pink and girly, also gifted me a pink stylus pen. I did myself (and my tablet) a favor and bought a pink case to match. 

All this talk about jewelry, glitter, and pink reminds me again of how much I love being a girl. I mean, I get it, boys have it good too in their own way. But, holy moly do we have it better. It's pretty funny that this tomboy who still loves sports and running outside so much, also has grown to love the color pink (blue/green are close tie for second) and glitter so much. The jewelry obsession? Well, you can ask any one of my good friends and they'll tell you that that has been with me forever ;). 

Have a great week! I'll be busy doing work for my legal clients and, hopefully, catching up with some girlfriends tomorrow night. 

In the meantime, have a great rest of your hump day and enjoy this awesome girl power song by none other than the great Alicia Keys...

A Birthday to Remember

Hi Friends!!

How was your weekend/week?!

Sorry, that I've been MIA. My birthday weekend/birthday were amazing and exhausting! But before I get into all of the details, let me start by saying that my 30th birthday has been one of the very best birthdays of my life. I was NOT looking forward to turning 30 for a number of reason: (1) my mom passed away when I was 20 and I had dreaded my 30th birthday ever since because I knew that when I turned 30, it would mean that I had lived almost a whole decade without my mom, (2) 30 simply felt old and I feared that all of a sudden I'd turn into some old fart with no youthful sass (little secret, I'm still youthfully sassy as ever), and (3) my past few birthday have been not so good and I was not looking forward to another not so good birthday. 

Well, I couldn't have been more wrong about turning 30. It was simply amazing!!

First of all, Dr. Love, my brother, my aunt, and my mother-in-law planned a really wonderful surprise party for me that went down last Friday night. I can't say that I was totally surprised when everyone yelled "Surprise!!," because I had some "clues." For one, Dr. Love told me early last month that he'd plan something and that I needn't bother with planning anything myself, but he never followed up with a fake plan,  leaving me to believe that either nothing was going on (impossible) or something awesome was being planned behind the scenes. Second hint, and this is a big one, my brother accidentally sent me an invite on Facebook to my own surprise party. Yes, I'm serious. My technologically super-star bro made a tech booboo. I did not dare open the invitation, but the title already gave me enough information to know something was up. And if that was not enough, my aunt essentially avoided me the entire weekend I was home a couple of weeks ago. Our conversations consisted of hellos, can you believe this weather, and useless commentary about a Lifetime movie we watched together. It was awkward, and out of character, to say the least.

So, when I got to the restaurant/lounge where my surprise party was at, I can't say I wasn't expecting a little shindig. But I can honestly say that I had no idea that so many people that I love would be there, that the ambiance would be so perfect, and that my heart would be filled with such happiness and excitement. It was, in one word, perfection.

As I walked into the room full of my loved ones wearing their brightest smiles and cutest threads, I couldn't help but shed a tear. It was truly awesome. And overwhelming. I was literally shaking with joy for hours. As if that wasn't enough awesomeness, my best friend of 27 years had also flown in from Chicago to help me celebrate.

I couldn't help but feel so so special and to acknowledge what a special night it was. I could feel my mom's presence. She must have been there, for the love in that room was absolutely divine. I was reminded of how many times my mom told my brother and I to choose our friends very carefully and to choose them on the basis of their loyalty, honesty, and kindness. On my 30th birthday, surrounded by my friends and family, I felt my mom's spirit beaming with pride from the knowledge that I had indeed chosen the very best of friends.

And these wonderful friends and family did not disappoint. I was not only showered with AMAZING gifts, but also a whole weekend of love and laughter. It was a birthday that I will never forget. A birthday to remember...

(w/ step-dad)

 (w/ Dr. Love)

 (bro and Dr. Love)

 (w/ my bestie)

 (with my birthday twins)

 (w/ Yuli)

 (w/ friends and fam)

 (w/ my step-bro)

 (w/ fam and friends)

 

A birthday to remember, indeed!

x

Hello 2013!!!

Happy New Year friends!

Sibling love...love my big bro sooooooooooo much.

So much fun spending time with childhood friends

Happy times with good friends (my bestie of 27 years at the far right :) )

Christmas dinner with Dr. Love

The perfect striped top (Banana Republic) thanks to my Aunt Seps.

Cousin pic...can't believe that my youngest cousin will be half my age come January 14th...eeeeek!!!

Loved this open-back dress, but had no idea where on earth I could wear it (btw, check out my sexy sports socks...yeah baby!)

 Wearing my engagement/wedding rings, a couple of my right hand rings, my sister-in-law's engagement/wedding rings, and a dear friend's engagement ring. The shine didn't carry over to the pic, but holy moly was I in sparkle heaven!!

First of all, my apologies for going MIA on you for almost a month. December-today has been crazy busy with holidays, family events, vacas, work, and life...

I just got home after being in Los Angeles with my in-laws for over a week. Dr. Love and I had such a great time with his parents, grandparents, bro/sister-in-law, and other relatives. Dr. Love's vaca ended early, as he left for a business trip on Friday. Mine continued on with a few days at my fam's home in Orange County. I had SUCH a wonderful past couple of weeks, but am also really happy to be back at home. There's nothing like snuggling up on your comfy sofa under a warm throw and watching some intelligence killing reality tv...yes, I'm talking about you, Real Housewives!

Back to reality = a TON of house cleaning, LOTS of legal work, lots of blog writing over at Mint + Chase, work on a new exciting addition to the Mint + Chase team (eeeek!! so excited to share this news!), and lots of alone time with Dr. Love once he gets back on Wednesday.

2013 is bound to be a big year! First of all, yours truly turns the BIG 30 on January 14th! I have so many emotions about turning 30 that I'll have to share them with you in a separate post. Let it suffice to say for now that there is a bitter-sweetness to this birthday.

Other than the big bday, I also have been getting more legal work (yay!!!!) and am amping up my ad/promotion efforts over at Mint + Chase. My poor baby has been on the back-burner for the past month, but I'm finally ready to give it the love (and new updates) that it so majorly deserves.

I'll write to you again this week (and promise that there will be more pics), but I'd also love to hear some feedback about what it is you would all like to see more of on my blog. I know that there are many of you visiting the blog (you make a girl blush), but I'm not sure what you like to read/see most. So, please leave a comment and help me make this blog that I love so much a place for you to love as well!

x