We're back and ready for more

Today I was just realizing how glad I am that a certain someone came back into my life.


Tyson was my very first friend when I moved to St. George. We took a home ec class together called "Foods" and I can remember having a very interesting day. Since we only remembered to double part of the recipe of the German pancakes we were making, we didn't put enough flour, so the eggs were the main ingredient. We ended up having the nastiest scrambled egg cakes ever created. But we always laugh about that now...or the time someone found a mouse in a drawer!


I remember we even went to a dance together in high school, The D-Day Dance. I remember how much fun we had when we went laughing too. Tyson and I lost touch for a few years when he moved to Salt Lake, but a little over a year ago I ran into him at a party and we finally got our friendship back together. And when he moved to St. George this July, it was fate!

I love laughing with Tyson. We always have our crazy "Fun Times Brought to You By: Manda and Tyson" quotes and end up laughing our asses off:

Me: Do you have your lighter?

Tyson (kidding): No...maybe i'll just steal one from the gas station.

Me: I'll just go find it...it's easier than getting arrested.

Me and Tyson bored, driving around one Saturday night trying to find something to do:

Tyson: You know, we are just going to end up sitting in the car, listening to music and getting ready for no reason.  At least the car is kind of like our club with music and us dancing. But us getting ready, what are we gonna do? Go home at 5 am and say, "LOOK AT US WE ARE BEAUTIFUL!"

Me, not paying attention: "UGH! This cap is so hard to get off. I can't get it."

Me, still not looking down. "Tyson, I can't get the damn cap of the Malibu! UGGGHHH!"

Tyson hands me the cap that he had the whole time...I look down. Sure enough, theres no cap on it...

Tyson, lighting a match: "Sorry...it's just really cold in here."

Me: YOU LIT A MATCH FOR WARMTH?!?!

Cue the hysterical laughter.

Tyson, drinking a fourloco (energy drink and alcohol mixed) smiles, says: "GOD THIS TASTES LIKE SHIT"

I know it's hard sometimes because he misses Salt Lake so much, and a lot of the awesome people he knows there. But I hope he knows how much it means to me to have him back here and how proud I am of him going back to school, working hard and playing hard too. He is such a great friend to talk to and to have fun with. I don't know what I would do without you doll :)

Love you Tyson!
Love Always,
Manda

Happy Birthday to Miss Carie Lilga...

Carie just threw one of the most awesome parties, and I think she deserves a little shout out for her birthday!

I have known Carie for a couple of years, but really got to know her when she moved in with one of my best friends, Kyle. I am so glad he has a roommate who is such a sweet, nice (and not to mention fun...Carie is the life of the party! I love having fun girls nights at the bar or hanging out at parties with her) person! After the experience I had with the people I lived with it makes me so happy that these two are true friends and know how to treat each other.

 

Seriously though, parties in St. George were in danger of becoming extinct. I think this helped restore my faith in the power of fun around here...I had a ball! I think we are so lucky to have the fun group of friends we do. I always have the craziest stories to tell, the best laughs and people I can count on. I love that :)

Love Always,
Manda

Sorry for Party Rocking...

Ladies and Gentlemen, the concert event of the year...<3

LMFAO AND KE$HA!

SEPTEMBER 16TH 2011

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA @ PLANET HOLLYWOOD

Of course a show like this requires excessive amounts of glitter. Do you think I got a little carried away?

 Me and two of my best friends, Jake and Tyson decided to take a road trip for this event. When we heard about it, we knew it would be the perfect kind of party.

As you know from previous blogposts, I have seen Ke$ha in concert before. Twice actually! She opened for Rihanna back in 2010...and then I caught her concert at the Saltair back in February. I am a pretty big fan, so I was excited to see her again. I mostly went to the show to see LMFAO though. They are one of my new favorite bands. They call their music a new kind of genre called "Party Rock" and it really is just perfect for that. Every hit is easy to dance to and they have so many fun songs. A few favorites? "I'm in Miami, Bitch," (they changed the lyrics to Las Vegas for us though) "Shots," "Get Crazy," (the theme song from Jersey Shore!) and the newest one, my favorite summer song obsession "Party Rock Anthem." I have to say they rocked the damn house! I couldn't sit still if I tried. The atmosphere was awesome. They had a light show, threw beach balls in the audience, and of course balloons came down from the ceiling! Everyone was dancing and singing, it was a blast. One girl had quite the dilemma during her fun at the show:

Girl, stumbling: OMG! I F**KING LOVE LMFAO! HEY, HAS ANYONE SEEN MY SHOES???

Ke$ha herself was having quite the good time as well:

Ke$ha grabs a champage bottle, turns to crowd, screaming: "LETS GET F**KING WASTED!!!!" proceeds to open bottle, chug the liquor, spit it out at the crowd and smash the bottle.

Ke$ha: "You guys, I have a big problem...there just isn't enough glitter on my titties!"

Backstage crew runs out and covers her in glitter.

My favorite Ke$ha concert experience was probably when I saw her at the Saltair, but this one was cool because she had added new things I hadn't seen when I saw her back then. She had a lot of special effects too and of course her glitter showers at the end of the show hahaha.

She also has a new album of dance remixes (I am the dance commander, and I command you to dance) that was just released, so a lot of her songs were remixed with dubstep which was awesome! She even has a new song too, one called "F**k him he's a DJ" which is now a favorite.

Poor Jake was so exhausted from school, work and all the testing going on at school that he just started passing out during the show. I never laughed so hard. Who the hell would fall asleep AT KE$HA!?! Me and Tyson kept making fun of him saying about how Jake thought her song "Sleazy" said "Sleepy" instead.

Oh boy, I had the time of my life.

Afterwards, we went to the CLUB <3 Basically it was one of the most amazing nights of my life!

Love Always,
Manda

 

The Only Place for Birthdays...

Tyson turned 23 this weekend, so we had to celebrate in style!!

This was one of the craziest weekends I have ever had in Vegas. Three uninterrupted days of fun :) On Friday night, we hit up Krave...poor Zach got kicked out within his first ten minutes of being there! Most of the night was spent trying to communicate with these underagers that got thrown out. I finally got to meet my hero, who is named Tony, the unicorn haired gogo dancer from the club. I was awe struck...his hair is even taller than mine!

Saturday we were so tired all we did was lounge poolside...I was laughing at Foster saying how we had to explore the four pools of Egypt since there was so many different swimming pools and water falls. We did conquer all of them!


And that night we had crazy adventures on the strip and in our hotel room...definitely the best way to have a birthday!

The best part was that so many of us were able to go!! Tyson's besties and two of my fav friends, Foster and Josh, drove all the way down from SLC just to party with us. Josh is so funny and always makes me laugh with his jokes and quotes...super bass or superb ass? hahahaha...I will never forget this weekend as long as I live.

Love Always,

Manda

Who are these weirdos?

I always feel a little bit sorry for Alex whenever he invites us over, because:
A) He has a beautiful brand new expensive house
B) we are crazy little terrors who have too much fun, get too drunk and then
C) he cooks a ton of pasta for us to help us sober up.

Cue the crazy ass photo sessions. We always take waaaay too many pictures and go waaaay too crazy. The next day looking through my camera is always interesting...

But Alex, you are a doll, and I love you so so much! hahaha I will never forget our crazy adventures at your house. 

Chris even gave Zach a bronzy makeover...cute if you are into the whole white boy version of Snooki thing :) which we ARE! lol.

See below for tanzilla...yea buddy!
Love Always,
Manda

Best Friends Visit!

Of course Casey and Dillinger pick the first day of school to come visit! It was hard juggling new classes, a new job and seeing them but being busy and happy is so, so worth it.

I had so much fun on our adventures...including going to the lake! I love Sand Hollow. We took the little boats out to the island and Dillinger, ever the prankster, says he thinks it would be fun to ride in MY boat...I KNEW WE WERE GONNA TIP OVER. I had to go to class smelling like the lake and with wet hair...pouf be damned. I never laughed so hard. I wish I had pictures but camera + water = me the klutz dropping it in so I decided to forgo photos.

We also went to the park and the golf course during the middle of the night. Saint George is a lot different than SLC...very limited on what there is to do hahaha. But we are the weirdos who have a blast doing nothing together. We kept freaking out thinking the cops were going to drive by (can't be on city property after dark ladies and gents!) and then laughed so hard when we got away with it.

Casey and Dillinger finally got to try UV CAKE TOOOOO!! It's our obsession...vodka that tastes like a cupcake?! YES PLEASE!!  And we hit up JITB too...a frienship tradition (for those of you who dont know...its the ever classy jack in the box LOL)

I love us.

Love Always,
Manda

Firsts Day (New Job AND School)

I absolutely love my new job!

I am the newest registration clerk at Dixie State College. My bosses Mace, Julie and Jane are so sweet and funny. You might remember my friend Matty from earlier posts...Mace is his mom, and she helped me get the job there! My history as an Ambassador didn't hurt either since I had some practice in the school computer system called Banner.

All the ladies at my work are so kind. It is one of the best atmospheres to be in, a place where everyone genuinely cares about each other and goes out of their way to do nice things for each other. Every day this week they bought us lunch...including CATERED HONOLULU GRILL!! If I haven't told you before...thats my very favorite thing in the whole world :)

There are so many sweet people, like Kelsey, Erin, and Candace, the other work study girls that are my age. Then there is Laralee, Shannon, and Janet, who I adore. Janet is the cutest thing! Every day since I have worked with her she tells me how much I brighten up the office and that she loves my laugh and my stories. She makes me so happy when she tells me what a pleasure it is to work with me. I work with Candace alot too, and we have so much fun laughing our heads off while we file. We even found a student with a hilarious name the other day....here's how our conversation went:
Candace: How would you like it if your last name was Treat?
Me: Only if my first name was Tasty!

Now she calls me Tasty and I call her Candy. We joke that we are going to run away to Vegas and become strippers together.

One of the best things about my job is that I get to work with JERHETT, one of my best friends from way back in 7th grade. We were inseperable! We had a group of friends that was amazing, I miss our fab five days back at Cedar Middle School. It is so fun to reminisce about our stories and jokes from back then.

I love it there :) I'm a very happy girl!
As for my semester, my classes went really well. I only am in two physical "classes" since I don't count Newspaper and one is online. And I have had Dr. Comeford before, so this semester wasn't too scary. Dr. Barry seems nice but strict! I love to write so "Advanced College Writing" won't be too bad. :)
Love Always,
Manda

Glee 3D Event!!

Me and my best gal pal APRIL are the biggest Gleeks of all time!

This 3D Concert movie was the highlight of my summer, and it was a blast going and singing along with all of our favorite numbers from the show. Just one sign that we don't belong on the series is the fact that the people behind us got up and moved to a different part of the theater since we were having too much fun...LOL!

Here is us in our 3D glasses making the glee sign!

April is such a sweet girl. My mom told me for almost a year that there is this girl at her work that reminds her so much of me, and that we are interested in so many common things. I finally got to meet her last semester when we had our Shakespeare class together. And the rest is history! Now we always have so much fun shopping, doing lunch or dinner and seeing movies together. I'm so glad to have her for a friend!
Love Always,
Manda

I Ain't Afraid of No Ghosts...

On this lovely evening, four friends visited a scary town called Silver Reef.

This is an abandoned town, full of spirits. I made to sure to ask Chris the story behind it so we would know what happened. Here's what he said:

"I don't know. People died there? It's haunted tho."

In the words of a genius, there you have it people. The amazing backstory of Silver Reef.

Not only is this town far away, it is also not scary. Until two of our friends disappeared. Me, Zach and Chris were walking the plank (or just an old board we found...can you tell we were bored?! hahaha) and pretending to be pirates.

All of a sudden we turn around and realize Dave and Tyson are gone. I am famous for my humor, but I am not kidding you when I tell you that I really was horrified.

I was screaming. Chris was near tears. Zach ran all the way back to the car.

Me: Chris I seriously don't know what happened. Someone keeps THROWING ROCKS AT ME!!!

Chris: I am sooo scared right now I wanna go home (my favorite line of the night hahaha)

Of course they were pranking on us. Of course I'm still pissed. Hahahaha I can't take a good joke unless i'm the one pulling it.

Love Always,
Manda

Mario Kicks Ass

One of my favorite things to do that I sadly don't do enough is play Mario Kart with Kyle, Carie and Trent!

I used to be a MK champ back in the day on the N64. But sadly these days my performance is somewhat lackluster. I only won once out of all the times we play!

Carie and Kyle are sooo good, they were making me mad!! HAHAHA I nicknamed Carie "Yosuck" instead of Yoshi and Kyle "Whorio" instead of Wario.

You guys make me smile :) hahaha

Love Always
Manda

SL, UT

Salt Lake City stole my heart and won't give it back. My vacation was wonderful, I didn't want it to end!


Most of the time I got to spend was quality time with Casey and Dillinger. I got to stay with them, which is always fun! The first night I got there we had a karaoke party with their fun roomie Justin...I'll never forget rocking out to Black Eyed Peas and singing my Fergie part! hahaha :)

Dillinger attacked me after Casey went to bed. I still have glitter in my damn hair. He kept saying his name was Papa Joe Jenkin Jenkers and my name is Baby Go Jenkin Jenkers. Then he covered me in glitter and concealer. I was exhausted and looked like a crack whore:

The next day we went to PURE (of course!) The club is my favorite thing...we need to get a club in St. George dolls! Actually, it would suck cuz no one would go haha. But I do love it there. I just love the vibe of the club, the music, the people, dressing up and getting glam and then dancing all night. We always have a pre-part before where we blast our music and play "Glam Squad" and all get ready together. We got packs of glitter and poured them all over our bodies and put on fake tattoos too, it was hot :) Anyway, The energy is always exciting and fun. We met up with our friends Aaron and Lukas, I love them :) Of course All of us kept getting seperated so here are all of the ones that were taken (I wish we would have all got one together!) Aferwards we went over to Aaron's house...by the time we got back to the apartment it was 5 AM! We had a crazy night. Oh, of course Me and Dillinger never are tired...we didn't end up going to sleep until 8:30 am...

The next night (Saturday 7/23) we went to HUKA, the fun hookah lounge in downtown Salt Lake. There is lots of fun music you can dance too and they have a Hookah right at your table! Its like a party at a restaraunt haha. Kyla is lots of fun! I am glad we got to see her too a lot during this trip. And another friend I had been missing...

ELFIE!!! HAHAHAHAHA

Sunday was pretty chill...Chris finally came! I was waiting and waiting for his arrival lol. But We did lots of fun things during each days, like sushi lunches, swimming and tanning at the pool, and shopping at the Gateway :) Casey and Dillinger's roomies Justin and Shawn are both really fun and sweet, I loved hanging out with them. Justin aka Peaches even let me share his bed since I had to nowhere to sleep! hahaha He was such a sweetheart, we totally trashed his apartment every night...I owe him big time!

Monday (7/25) The best part of all was...THE KATY PERRY CONCERT!!! Robyn opened up for her, she was amazing. One of my favorite songs of hers is called "Dancing on My Own." Don't laugh, but I first heard it on Gossip Girl and then after that I was obsessed with Robyn's fun techno dance music.

The blonde extension Casey put in my hair during "Glam Squad" so I would look hot for the concert!! I love him...I always make him laugh so hard he cries (as seen below)

Seriously, Katy knows how to put on a show. Her set was my dreamworld...Candy, sparkles and bright colors everywhere. She even named it "Candyfornia!" I LOVED the show. Every song was amazing live, and the little cute "plot" of the show was funny.

Katy's life was really sad...she worked at a gross butcher shop and was really unhappy. It got even worse when her pet cat "Kitty Purry" ran away and she had to find her. Soon she got transported to a magical place called Candyfornia. She looked all along the gumdrops and cotton candy, and found her pet, while also finding love with a cute Bakers Boy from the cupcake shop!. The costumes were to DIE for, sooo cute! It may have been my favorite concert so far...but I really liked Rihanna during last years "Last Girl on Earth" tour too though, its a toughie!

We had so much fun at Huka that we took Chris again after he came. We also went to the most bizarre Pizza Place in the entire world called "The Pi"...its like an underground heavy metal pizza dungeon. It was SCARY! The pizza was AMAZING though :)

All in all, my trip was amazing :) Glad to be back home though!! <3

Spontaneous Vegas Trip...

My friend Tyson texted me when I was working tonight...and tells me he moved back to St. George! I was seriously so excited. He is one of my best friends and I really have been wanting him to come back from SLC. But the good news kept on coming...he invited me to go to Vegas and go to the club down there called Krave (the only gay club on the Las Vegas strip!)

Krave is KRAZY! There are go-go dancers, it rains foam and glitter, and the bouncers (who happen to be straight!) are sexy as hell...One of them asked for my number  tonight! I've been texting him alot. I noticed he kept watching me dance the whole night too.

Tyson invited our friend Chris Chadburn too, and we had so much fun dancing the night away! The DJ that plays at Krave is amazing, he spins the HOTTEST music. Seriously, you don't even have to go up and tap him like at other clubs. Its like he reads your mind of whatever music you want to hear. As Chris (mendez) would say...sometimes DJs have to play songs that they dont like hahaha. As long as it is what the people want!

I wish we were in this picture...sigh. I forgot my camera this night. But you get the idea :) It looks just like this! And it even has the same dancer hahaha.

Love Always,
Manda

Great Friends Are Rare

I realized sometimes I don't get the chance to blog about everything I get to do (especially if there aren't pictures to go along with it!) But one of my favorite things to do is to go out to lunch or dinner with friends. It is really the perfect setting to catch up and just get to spend time with someone you care about. The focus can't be anything but conversation! I love those times. People get busy and distracted and its hard to make time for everyone, so if someone has the opportunity to go to lunch it makes me really happy. One of my favorite friends and I got the chance to have lunch today. His name is TRENT and he is a great friend and person altogether. I met him working at the movie theater (I am lucky to have a job where I make so many wonderful friends! hahaha!) And we just clicked. 8 months later here we are, still lunching (even though he just transfered to another theater...sniffle!) and laughing together. We were #25 at 25 main...its a cosmic sign :) Hahaha!
Love Always,
Manda

the Ke$ha Way Of Life...

...Involves way too much of the following:

-Parties

-Dancing
-Laughing
-Drunken Behavior (sorry to admit it)

-GLITTER

I feel like there are songs that speak to you and that you will remember for the rest of your life. Sometimes when I hear those certrain songs, they transport to me to that time and place in my life, reminding me of who I was with and what we were doing. It is crazy how songs can do that. I'm sure a lot of people will say Ke$ha isn't talented or this or that, blah blah blah. But...I don't care. She is FUN. She knows who she is and what she's worth, and thats all her music is. FUN. I love it, it makes me happy and will always remind me of my crazy times during my 20s, at the club with my friends, dancing and drinking. Me and my best friends Casey, Dillinger and Chris were even lucky enough to see her in concert this February. I will never forget  singing at the top of our lungs, or Me and Casey pushing our way up to the front row (we were literally 5 feet away from her!) These experiences are things you will never forget. I wouldn't trade them for anything.

"We Are Who We Are"

We're dancing like we're dumb/bodies goin' numb/we'll be forever young/just like a superstar...DJ Turn it up/I'm so sick of being so serious/ it's making my brain delirious/i'm just talkin' truth/and tellin' you bout the shit we do...Tonight we're goin hard, hard, hard, just like the world is ours, ours, ours, we're tearin it apart cuz u know we superstars, We Are Who We Are!

This song is a lot of fun and makes me smile everytime I hear it. I am a busy girl and work hard. But I like to play hard too. You are only young once and I want to live to the fullest before its time to have a full time job, a family and other responsibilities.

There are other artists or songs that mean a lot to me, and remind me of times in my life. Here is a musical timeline for you:

(1997)*Madonna: During my childhood, Madonna was a huge influence on me. I loved her style from the time that I knew what style was. and I remember "The Immaculate Collection" was the first tape I bought (along with an ugly blue straw hat and glitter nail polish...what else could a trendy 7 year old want?) The songs I still remember obsessing over were "Borderline," "Cherish" and "Lucky Star."

(1999)*Boy Band/Girl Band Explosion: Backstreet Boys (my first concert) Nsync, Hanson (they changed my life) and, um, duh THE SPICE GIRLS. Me and my friends used to write plays and act out that we were with the members from these boy bands, or make home movies about trying to sneak into their concerts. We knew their favorite colors, birthdays, etc. And as for The Spice Girls, i dressed like them everyday during 4th grade. My favorite song is and always will be "Say You'll Be There" I used to try to karate kick like Sporty Spice does in the video...i would jump off and try to do it in the air lol. I still know every word to their songs. There were other minor bands like O-Town, Dreamstreet, 2gether etc. That we REALLY loved. We were teenyboppers to the fullest.

(2005-2007)
My High School Classic Collection:
*Beyonce: B-Day
*Fergie: The Dutchess

*Gwen Stefani: Love Angel Music Baby and The Sweet Escape

*Justin Timberlake: FutureSex Love Sounds

These are my ultimate favorite CDs from high school. These albums from sophomore, junior and senior years I could never get sick of. They will always be classics to me. And anything from the 80s era was me and my best friend Chris's thing. I'm talking...

*Madonna (again)
*Michael and Janet Jackson
*Stacey Q

*Jody Watley
*Debbie Gibson
*Expose

(2008) *The Higher: When I was first starting out my college years this (somewhat) local band really struck me. I was obsessed with their CDs and saw them in concert twice! "Undertaker" and "Play with Fire" were my favorite songs. Seth Trotter was so dreamy...his voice is amazing.

Britney Spears (Blackout and Circus) became my favorite CDs instantly when they were released. I remember going the first day the came out to the store to buy them (which is rare for me) More music I never get tired of. When I saw Britney in 2009 for her "Circus" tour it was my first major concert in 10 years. I loved every minute and inspired me to want to go to concerts every year. It became my rule! At least one every year.

(2009-2010) Lady Gaga: (The Fame/The Fame Monster) and Rihanna (Rated R) This music changed my life. I emulated both of these women. My style, my attitude even my personality changed. Lady Gaga has had such an influence on me that people even call me Gaga at my college and my job! I dressed like her for my 21st birthday costume party, and again for Halloween last year! When I saw Rihanna in concert, I thought she was the coolest girl that literally didn't give a fuck what anyone thinks. She is so strong and has an amazing voice. I love all of her songs, any and all of them.

ALSO, Christina Aguilera (Bionic) and Rihanna (Loud) will always remind me of days in my apartment at La Venita. We listened to this music constantly, this was our soundtrack to the summer/winter months. If i hear a song from any of these I am instantly transported to my days with my two former roommates Justin and Spencer.

(2011) Now we come back full circle to Ke$ha, and my other girl, Katy Perry. Katy Perry's music is also really fun, upbeat and always reminds me of fun times in my life. "E.T" and "Last Friday Night (TGIF)" are the songs of this summer. Last summer "California Gurls" was my favorite too. Summer songs are really important to me for some reason.Lady Gaga's new CD (Born This Way) is fast becoming a part of so many of my memories this summer. There is always one song or another by these girls playing during some random crazy adventure of mine.

Sorry for the long tangent of a post! But it was fun to think about this and look back.

Love Always,
Manda