Hello blog, I've done a horrible job at updating {past updates can be found here} 

There's so much to say and so much to get caught up on, but right now all I can say is that I'm nothing short of utterly grateful for the blessings that have been given to me in my life. Tomorrow I turn 31 {how did that happen!} and I honestly couldn't image a more perfect place to be in life, in every way possible. 

 I can only hope and pray that this next year can be even more amazing that 30 was!

All the fun superhero photos here and of course here!

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In between flights, layovers, gate changes, pick ups and drop offs, it suddenly turned to a chilly Fall in California. September is almost officially over and another chapter coming to anti-climatic finish. Today I day dreamed about heading home and spending the night building a fort, curling up with a cup of warm soup, a bottle of wine (or two..) and a date with netflix, ignoring the world for just one night, but life has other plans for me tonight. 


Better plans? Maybe...just maybe...

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Hi, remember me? Yeah...I've been bad. Life's been way too busy for my good. I'm heading off to Canada for the next week doing a TV tour but the last month has been a roller coast of emotions (to say the least..) and this month always proves to be the most difficult. There's an expiration date for a broken heart, right? 


Regardless I'm moving forward in the most positive, best way I possibly can. Meeting as many new people as humanly possible, continuing to challenge myself outside of my personal comfort zone and what better way to deal with everything than to stay busy..busy... busy...busy till October rolls around, and fall begins to set in and September becomes another distant memory till next August.  


J says it best, in ways that hit so close to the heart that I know I'm not alone, and I never have been. There is a reason, a purpose within the destruction of people's free will- so says many cups of coffee and better yet, cocktails. Even last night, I met a new friend who has gone through the ugly d-word, and sadly a dear friend in Bologna, who was my saving grace that disgusting May, is going through the same thing. Free will's a bitch. 


And while majority of my current life moments are happy, amazing and all around wonderful...when the memories of a life past hit, they hit hard and with emotionally deadly force. Yet, we've both completed the first year or the first level in this whole "healing" process, and I can only imagine that it gets better from this point {only staying off facebook as much as possible helps} 


Hopefully I can find the time to begin sharing more of those grateful moments and this new life that I've created for myself. 

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"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.  And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." James 2:2-4

It's interesting for me to see how God has worked in my life over the past year. This week I was fully prepared to have an emotionally challenging week. A week of second guessing, filled with confusion, more or a less a dark cloud that I, in all honesty, just didn't want to deal with. The past months, this has been my prayer request, whenever people would ask me what I needed prayer for- the strength and grace to deal with the next round of obstacles- was often my response.  I share this because a year ago, I was at the darkest place I'd ever been in my life. I didn't know what to do, what to say, who I was, what was going on. For lack of a better word, I was lost.  

A year later (and yes dad's are always right) I'm in the exact opposite place that I was less than a year ago. God has completely changed everything about my life. I've been so blessed and filled with so much hope this week. In many ways I feel like a little child on Christmas morning, so excited to see how God continues to work in my life, so excited about not only the overly amazing people he's blessed me with, but moreover the excitement of where he's taking me. The excitement of getting to know people deeper, their challenges, their struggles, their hopes and dreams.  This week I learned that there good people, {and good men} who have been in my same situation. We can't choose what others do to us, but we can choose how we handle a trial, we can choose who we turn to in the midst of that trial. I chose to turn back to God and I've never felt my heart changed more than it has felt this week.

Ironically, this week of all weeks.

Scenes

{*from the not so recent weekend}

Not having a computer that I can call my own is making it a little difficult to blog in a timely manner, but I finally have some photos from our trip to San Francisco.

There was food, lots of it and there was wine- copious amounts as scheduled, and there were friends, best friends, in abunance.

 I believe I have the worlds most amazing friends (and sister and sister's boyfriend). People who have been there for me through life's greatest moments and equally life's more challenging times.

They've been there to cry with me, celebrate with me, laugh with me, keep me accountable so what better way to turn 30 than with some of the people that I love most in this world?

*the rest of the photos are here

   {part of my birthday goodie bag waiting for me at the hotel- and yes, the champagne made it home in one piece}

   I {love} these women

Foreign Cinema is amazing. Equally amazing is Jenn trying to get them to play Breakfast at Tiffany's {a week early} Isn't that what best friends are for!?

   New York Times Food section eat your heart out {pun intended}

{nom}

{love}

weekend escape

{photo credit}

I'm off to San Fransico for a belated birthday getaway for the weekend with this lady (to see this lady and hopefully this lady).

We're going to ride trolley cars, cross big red bridges, eat clam chowder from oversized sour dough bowls and drink copious amounts of California wine.

Here's to new memories!

Good friends + sisters = happiness at it's finest. 

March

Part one!

To say March was a busy month, is an extreme understatement. There were a lot of big firsts- my first concert I was assigned to photograph, my first back-in-LA-red carpet event that I headed up, 30th birthday. And as tired as I am, I wouldn't change anything! Maybe just being able to blog a little more in a timely manner.

March showed me that life has a funny way of bring new people into your life, and God has an even funnier way of bring all your hopes and dreams back to you- only better than you could have ever imagined. And while there are still so many obstacles still ahead, I enter into April (a little late) filled with hope and promise for what the future holds and won't think past today.

                                    {Nylon event!}

{sleep deprived but working hard} 

                            {The red carpet} 

                                   {Party go-ers}

{back lounge with the Grilled Cheese Truck!}

{Brooklyn's Gutter meets San Diego's East Village & the guys trying to figure it out}

{Birthday dessert at Extraordinary desserts in San Diego- splitting is the way to go-nom!}

{Rogue photo at the Soho House Self Magazine event- no photos were allowed..the nerve}

{The beginning of the beginning! 30!}

There are still so many more photos to share...so I think I'll make a part two!

stay tuned...

Road trippin'

I'll take any excuse to hop in a car and head out for a road trip, it's just an added plus when it's for baseball.  It just so happened that we had a beautiful woman who knows a little something about baseball and the Angels. That weekend we enjoyed lots of spring trainging baseball, early birthday celebrations, the warm Arizona weather, and lots of good company.

Baseball season is here!

  The rest of the photos, click here

{photo credit}

This week I'm grateful for...

* new friends {and pushing myself outside my comfortability}

*traveling again, even if it's just to Las Vegas

* god's grace with me {and his sense of humor}

*a warm bed and food on the table

* deep tissue massages {sigh}

*rainy california weather

* the countdown to 3-0 has begun!! 

Vegas roundup

I'm back and very thankful to come home to a three-day rainy weekend! The trip was a huge success, lots of editor meetings, too many delicious dinners, and new Canadian friends.  And while I haven't quite figured out how much I should share about my job here, here's a recap through my phone:

 

{My Valentines day dates}

{My other V-day dates}

{sneak peek}

{Black Rebel Motorcycle Club}

{into pans labyrinth}

It began filled with so much anticipation, overwhelming hope, passion and excitement. Embarking on a new adventure in a foreign country, ready to conquer life and the world together. Nothing was going to stop us...

And yet it ended with betrayal, and deceit...with broken promises and crushed dreams. Life showed me it's one-sided unfairness, and peoples selfish choices, and it arrived again at my door in crushed boxes.

My dad protected me as much as he could for months in his Emily safety bubble, keeping me from having to deal with the beat-up boxes bursting at the seams with painful memories and a lost life.... until today.

Today as we moved the boxes in the California storage. I realized that I'm not the woman who excitedly packed up those boxes in anticipation for our once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I'm not the woman who was forced to leave Italy due to someone else's choices. I no longer look at those boxes and see the brokenness of that woman, or of the world, but a woman who has overcome dauntingly overwhelming odds, a woman whose life isn't packed away in those broken boxes, but who's life is happily in this moment. A woman who's able to walk into a room and hold her head up high, who's learning to fall in love with her new life path, a woman who's learning to accept another person's free will and choices made for her life. Learning to fall in love with herself and God all over again. A woman whose boxes may still arrive shattered, but she herself is no longer so.

Weekend

 

I'm not one for new years resolutions, in fact to be honest- I hate them, but this year I'm getting back into the groove of things. I may not be able to travel the way that I used to, but there are so many wonderful things right here, so this weekend I decided to not forget pick up my camera and wander around my own backyard.

1. Pannikin Coffee & Tea, Encinitas. I think I go there more now than I ever did in High School but it's a little bit of Brooklyn mixed in with some So Cal sun. 2. Moonlight Beach for a little stroll 3. Meeting up with papa p for a lunch date at Cessy's for some real mexican food 4. Carintas taco! 5. Walk around the farmers market in Carlsbad 6&7 Afternoon stop at the Mission San Luis Rey {can you believe I live right next to it!} I haven't been there since our mandatory fourth grade field trip to the California Missions, but I also appreciate better now than when I was 9.

Re-exploring my own backyard is, for me, taking time to enjoy what I have here, in this moment {and being better about blogging about it!}

So long, farewell 2010!

To a new chapter, new friends, new challenges, new adventures, peace, love and joy.

Have a fun and safe new year!

{photo credit}

I {heart} New York

My whirlwind of a week has finished, and I'm back in sunny southern california.

The week flew by, just as I had expected it to- filled with meetings, press showings, meeting up with friends, networking, living up the reputation of the "city that never sleeps" because I never did.

I'll be honest, I was worried about heading back to New York. Worried that I wouldn't want to leave, that I would completely fall to pieces. Why God is so great, he didn't let that happen to me. He didn't let me break down, but rather just the opposite. I wasn't sad over what I lost but sensed a great strength and was grateful that I had a job that allows me to work in such an amazing city, for the experiences that I shared in that city, that I was able to see the people that we're in part the motivation for wanting to move back and at the end of the day, I still got to come home to my family. New York will always have a piece of my heart, and I guess that's the blessing & curse wrapped into one, that my heart will forever be split into three equal parts for California, New York and Italy.

Getting on the plane back to California, I had a sense of peace, a feeling that I've been longing for for months. I have God to thank for that.

Next challenge, eventually making it back to Europe.

Women in Rock

My night in photos!

I took my two hot dates with me to the GQ- Ray Ban party at the beautiful Andaz Hotel in West Hollywood to celebrate Women in Rock. A rocking night of music, friends & family, photo booths and of a trip to the Fat Burger food truck. 

Ah L.A.till we meet again....

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I haven't forgotten about my little 'ol blog, I promise....life lately has been in overdrive and as much as I pray for more hours in the day, God seems to laugh at my request and rightfully so.

This week, I made a few big life choices, and I'm thankful for the new chapter that I'm about to embark on. First, I decided to throw a curve ball back at life and yes, I went brunette...very, very brunette. (Yes, Jenn- I did it!) I have to say that I absolutely love it! I might have the heart and soul of a blonde, but sassing it up as a brunette is extremely fun and very much needed.

I also accepted a new job.  I'm nervous and excited but I know that this is a gift from God. I felt like Goldie Locks this summer, trying to find the right fit. I believe I've found it and I'm so extremely thankful.  Reminding myself that it's not the job that makes the person, but the person that makes the job.  I never thought life would take me to this place, but as I take every day as it comes, I've learned that you truly never know what tomorrow will bring you so stop and enjoy whats going on in this moment.  So, I am!

I'll be back up and running again soon with photos and more updates!