Last Friday was my birthday. I turned 32 and I’m OK with it, I guess. Not like I have a choice about in the matter. I’m embracing it. There are a lot of numbers left until I get to 40 so I’m looking at that as a positive. 🙂
california necklace maya brenner designs
It was a very awesome day. My boyfriend presented me with the necklace I wanted, it features an outline of California (my home state, my favorite state) in sterling silver. It’s something that I posted to Pinterest, so take note ladies, it’s a great way to let people know the things you really want. 🙂 We ate the same cake my mom bought for birthdays when I was a kid. I actually hated it when I was a little girl but now I love it’s my favorite. My tastebuds have grown an appreciation for fresh strawberries and whipped cream frosting. Dinner was at Benihana with my mom and her husband, where I made it very clear that I didn’t want the Benihana staff to know it was my birthday. Not at all interested in having everybody singing and making a ruckus. We got to hear it anyway with all the other celebrations happening at other tables.

The very next day I moved into my new apartment. The one I wrote about previously. It’s even better than I’d imagined, I have so much more space. I bought a great headboard from Amazon.com for super cheap (less than $300) and I lucked out snagging a Pottery Barn duvet for $50 when it was originally $200, but I’m finding that I need more stuff than I’d originally thought. I’m talking lamps, shelving, TV stands, a coffee table, side tables, console tables, more wall art, nightstands, etc. I need to get rid of my super large dining table that doesn’t make sense in the new space. It’s sort of overwhelming. I want everything to go well with each other. But I can’t buy everything all at the same time. I feel like I’m trying to put a puzzle together without all the pieces. I’m planning it all out though, got some ideas that I’ll hopefully be sharing with you here. I’ve been trolling sites like One Kings Lane and HomeMint (Justin Timberlake makes stuff for your home now, seriously. I wish he would put out new music!).

If you were to ask me when I was going to my next race I honestly couldn’t tell you for sure. I could say that I’m shooing for Texas or Phoenix in November, and Champion’s Week in Vegas in December, and that would be true. But if that’s actually going to happen? I have no idea.

I think at this point it’s pretty obvious I’d give my left ovary to be at any and all NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races. I’ve attempted multiple times to try and make that happen. It’s something I continue to contemplate on an almost daily basis. I blame all those damn motivational quotes people (me included) post on Pinterest, but I digress. But I’m one of those people that if I can’t do it right or properly then I’m not that interested in doing it at all. But I can’t quit this NASCAR thing. I feel like I’d be doing myself a disservice but then on the other hand I feel like I’m not giving you guys all the stuff you’ve said you liked. Ya know me at the races writing about what I did, what I saw, what I overheard or how this one time Richard Childress was standing in my vicinity at the Driver’s Meeting and said “I’m going to stand over here with these pretty ladies” and I’m 99% sure he was referring to me and some other women standing next to me. See. That. I want to give you MORE OF THAT. I can’t do that from this desk. But I also can’t pay rent on my awesome apartment and pay for travel all over the country. Damn you, reality.

So until I get to another race or NASCAR event I’m going to make stuff up. I already do this for myself. I’m not talking about making up stories as if they really happened or making up rumors. I’m saying I’d tell you exactly what I’d be doing right now if I were attending the weekend’s race. For example, if I were at Richmond this week I would have flown there yesterday and I would have gotten settled at my hotel, which consists of turning on the television and then immediately doing a Google search to find the nearest Panera location for dinner. Today I’d be wandering around the garage attempting to get another Obligatory Ron Malec photo. 🙂

I do that as a visualization exercise. The idea being that if I keep visualizing it it’ll actually happen. What do you think I should do? For the races I know for sure I get to — Auto Club Speedway, Las Vegas and Sonoma — next year I’m trying to think of some cool ideas to execute at the track (if they’ll let me). 🙂

In other news…

— In my travels on the internet I came across the site, The Chic-Type Blog. It’s great if you’re really into design and typography, or if you just like looking at pretty things. What I love the most is that the author posts a free monthly wallpaper for your computer. For September she posted two that I’m using on my monitor and laptop screen at work. The image above is what my work monitor looks like right now. 🙂

— I now take BART to work. If you don’t know what BART is, it’s the San Francisco Bay Area’s version of subway system, it’s a train. Taking BART is a good thing in the sense that I get to not drive my car, which saves a ton on gas and I walk more which is great for the health and all that. But it’s bad thing in that I LOVE my car, singing along with my music and having complete control over when I leave. But I’m making the best of it by getting through a bunch of books that I’ve accumulated. My first BART book of the year is “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn. It is fantastic and I highly recommend it. It’s the story of a marriage and what happens when the wife goes missing. I picked it up when I heard that Reese Witherspoon purchased the movie rights. I have to read it before it makes it to the big screen.

gone girl