THIS IS WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF...

This weekend was slightly beyond comprehension…I still sort of feel like perhaps it was a dream. My friend Carrielove flew in on Saturday from North Carolina. For a year we have been talking about a repeat visit to Balboa Island for bicycles and Balboa Bars and Saturday was the day… 

I picked her up from John Wayne just after 11am and we headed to a McDonalds for a quick outfit change, makeup touchup, and sweet tea (I was already armed with Starbucks as I had delivered morning caffeination to amazing Amanda forever Young who was ROCKING the International Student Ministry Furniture Giveaway…I literally pulled out of the parking lot in tears - I can’t even begin to encapsulate how incredible it is to watch people meet Jesus and to know one of my closies gets to be His hands and feet in such a real way to so many from around the world…so immensely monumental and astoundingly beautiful). Carrielove thought perhaps she should just stay groggy but I reminded her it was only 11am in sunny southern California, so she proceeded with quick consumption of liquid energy - and thanked me MANY TIMES later…little did we know. From there we headed straight to Balboa Island for ice-cream. DELICIOUS. We then took the ferry and rode the ferris wheel (the world’s longest ferris wheel according to all the hype) and rented our bikes. Pink for Carrielove, mint green for me, and when the guy told us our bike lock code would be 1989 we just couldn’t contain our joy. Even our bike lock code was perfection - thank you very much TSwitft. We rode the boardwalk to Crow Burger Kitchen (which we expected to be much further than it really was) and were seated next to a guy who I think might be a genius. He came to Crow alone…with his dog…the most well-mannered dog of all time. I mean no elbows on the table, not a sound, sat up straight the entire meal kind of dog. And this guy could get ANY GIRL he wanted with this darling canine sitting across from him, and the ladies, they came and they all oohed and awed. Like I said, genius. We fell prey to his antics and took a picture ourselves, what can I say. We ate the most delicious burgers and fries (green bean fries for my gluten-intolerant friend due to cross contamination fears) and then jumped back on our bikes for a bit more riding (and by a bit I mean a LOT - I’m not sure our dairy-aires will ever be the same). We were super hot and sweaty and it was all kinds of glorious. We walked this rocky little ledge and took pictures and laughed and it was truly the perfect kind of beachy day. Just after 7pm we returned our bikes and caught the ferry back so we could consume our second Balboa Bar of the day - also delicious (though if truth be told, I couldn’t finish mine). We decided to call it a night and headed towards Target for some essentials before setting up camp at my house. 

At this point, we had been debating purchasing TSwift tickets for Monday night’s concert all day. I was admittedly being a smidge wishy-washy about spending the money and getting to LA after working all day, even though I knew it would be such a once-in-a-lifetime experience. As we pulled into the Target parking lot only minutes from my house, Carrielove got a text message…someone was offering us free tickets to Taylor Swift. It was approximately 8:15pm and dreams were about to come true. We got out of the car screamed, debated running inside Target to buy dresses, decided “ain’t nobody got time for that”, got back in the car and started driving while rapidly dialing Carrie’s friend to figure out all the details. Long story short, we spent the next hour or so on the road and arrived at the concert about 30 minutes or so after TSwift went on stage. We got to sit in a suite, so we didn’t deal with any concert traffic but just walked right up to our seats and got situated. We caught all the special guests and it was ridiculously amazing. I kept looking over at Carrielove and saying, “Is this happening? Are we really at a Taylor Swift concert?” It was insane. I think it’s the kind of story we’ll be telling when we’re 80-years-old. Remember that time when… oh man. We could have spent the money to go to the concert tonight, we could have made crazy costumes and we would have had a total blast…but I have a feeling that the spontaneous trip to see TSwift in our beach grubbies with salt water blown hair  and a total price tag of $5 for parking will forever be a memory that will make us smile until it hurts. THIS IS WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF.