Margo's got Moxie ! : the diary of miss red high heels

Around my house, I have little reminders of happiness and joy, things that make me unique too. On my walls, is a jungle them of canvas paintings featuring white birds in forestry, a giraffe, two zebras, and a picture of Prague of the river area outside a frame and another picture of my boyfriend and myself in SF. I have a comfy green couch and a blanket that covers the midsection for Mia to burrow in when I am at work and it faces the window of the exit door. I put my small 4ft xmas tree up in the corner of the TV.      On my fridge, there are holiday pictures from good friends from home; these by far our favorite. I love to send them cards at Christmas, hugely to put a smile on their face, and to also lift my spirits when I feel down. I distract myself and my own head when I am giving to others. What a wonderful feeling that is! The kitchen has no more table if you can believe it! I sold it to a man going through a tough divorce. It was weird at first not ...

  I had always wondered how people were making these healthy, tasty, user friendly dishes for dinner, and where they came from. My man uses two meal plans and thus Blue Apron and Plated were introduced to me. I know my sister uses Hello Fresh which I hear is equally decent. I was amazed. Two meals show up at your doorstep, that you get to cook, with all the ingredients right there without you having to shop or deal with traffic, or stress of finding a recipe.   I have spent the last  several years eating the same thing over and over even in college. I eat rice, spinach salad with tomatoes and onions, eggs, and chicken. That is mostly it. Occasionally it would be turkey tacos, or mushrooms thrown in. I was saving for international travel and that was the way to go. I get teased about it all the time. I could not afford a meal boxed plan and wasn't sure I could do it, with my lifestyle. Since I am up so early for work all week, my nights are spent at home mostly. It can ...

This year, I spent thanksgiving at my grandpa's cabin. The siblings that live in socal (which now includes me) drove up to Arnold for the weekend to meet up with mom and dad and our brother. My boyfriend joined us in the festivities. The huge dinner was a collaborative effort where we met up with my grandpa's longtime friends and neighbors, Patti and Dan and their daughter Katie.  We had the dinner at their abode cabin, which is across from the Bent Nail (our cabin). I was especially excited about the mashed potatoes and the yams Patti made. I wasn't able to do much of a gym workout that day, just heavy walking. I had one large helping of all the food, and sauntered back across the street and definitely went to bed early! The stars were pretty at night in the dark sky in the mountains. Lakemont Pines still remains my happy place. It was a great recharge for me and quality time. I really tried to avoid social media as much as I could to decompress. I slept i...

   People often wonder why I enjoy Phantom of the Opera and Beauty and the Beast so much. If you are child, it is difficult to understand what both of these stories truly mean. There are so many themes going on in these films, one could argue they are not the same. They share one key thing in common with two characters however. Both men do not know how to love. Their hearts are worn and battered from a harsh past. The opera Phantom is a brilliant, sadly disfigured, obsessive, monster inside and the Beast is a flawed, torn, selfish, bitter, man. Their personalities operate on fear, the fear they hope will give them what they want most: love.  (google images)    Luckily for the Beast he was able to let go. His heart had turned to stone, because he had a curse placed on him for his rude behavior towards a beggar woman. He learned the hard way, but Belle found the man within. She had to see through his stubborn, and harsh anger, and become to love him, tr...

 I have always dreamt of going on a hot air balloon ride and wanted to soar high above the ground against the canyon. My boyfriend found a Groupon coupon for Temecula air flights. We had two choices, sunrise ride or sunset ride. I was torn with which one to do because both seemed equally dreamy and beautiful. Sunrise was chosen and I was very surprised. I thought the weather would be cloudy and cold. San Diego delivered a wonderful gift.   The weather that day was perfect. There was a light breeze and the sky was colorful, offering an array of pastels for our enjoyment. Our balloon operator Eric has done his job a long time, and was humorous and friendly for our ambiance and neighborly environment. Champagne was open to us while in the air as well as on the ground prior to flight. We watched the fire light up the contraption and after we climbed in horseback style, we took to the sky, weightless it seemed, and free. The wind path took us around the vineyards and a few pump...

As children we make mistakes, that adults call out as forgivable and we get to go on about our day as if nothing happened. We skin our knees, we steal cookies from the cookie jar, we paint the walls in the house, we hide mom and dad's money, we tattle on our siblings, etc are just some of the things we have done as children. Childish mistakes are innocent, they show us giving mom and dad the, "Yes I'm guilty, please don't punish me too harshly look." As we age, that innocence fades. In a lot of households, as adults, to our parents, when we make mistakes their is shame attached, their is fear, there is judgement, and there is failure highlighted. Granted, not all homes have this, but some do. They model, the choices an adult makes or doesn't make is a reflection on their persona. So, if you make a mistake, you are crucified, or it feels like you are because you did something totally wrong. The mistakes as adults affect others in so many ways. We don't th...

In lieu of the tragic event in Las Vegas it has me thinking about little things once more again in life. The little moments too are important. Walking Mia in the morning in the brisk fall air, to a nice cup of coffee or buying that dress I know I shouldn't have, but want. The dress I tried on in SLO I had it ordered to my apartment from the Change of Dress consignment store. I may have mentioned it before (must have slipped my memory), but I keep thinking of trying to have positive thoughts.  I attended school at UNR and have many friends from Vegas. I was in Vegas in 2016 google images Dec for some shows, just eerie, how I even wanted to go to a music festival this year... almost went to that one, but had no money to spare and didn't get time off. I keep lying awake at night thinking how could someone do such a thing. When work is slow, my mind drifts to looking at the news and social media, the two worst places to stop in for a break or to kill time. I came...

California is seriously a great state. It literally has so much to offer. It has sandy, sunny beaches, it has a golden Gate bridge, Tahoe, rocky mountains, little nooks and towns no one has heard of, wineries that are tasty and breathtaking, and it has restaurants up and down the coast you won’t tire of eating at. Born and raised here, besides Florida for 6 years and Olympia Washington for 1yr, and Reno Nevada for 3 years, this is all I have known. I love where I live though too. I always forget how fortunate I am to live and still live in this area. We don’t have hurricanes, or heavy storms. We have forest fires, but they are working to tame them.(goes without saying I am sure there are other things to add) The traffic down south and in bay area are not great, but it isn’t congested air too badly, so it’s manageable with Spotify, ITunes, Radio, and Podcasts. We have SUP paddle boarding, breweries, kayaking, hiking, lakes, rivers, reservoirs, and rock structures, trees, and we...

Getting into the groove down here in socal still. I tried out yoga for a week at a place called Yoga Six. I was able to exercise my mind and my body tandem and restore my posture and give some love to my aching back. I have a little curvature (scoliosis), had it since I was a kid. The 20$ week package was great. I took classes like Deep Stretch and Restorative Yoga. 24hr Fitness offers them, but they aren't as relaxing in my opinion. Be prepared to be a pay price like most things in life! I asked about a membership at Yoga Six, and it was 100$ a month. Considering 200$ is my grocery bill, I couldn't do it. I also am more interested in traveling and doing things with people and my man than sitting on a mat couple times a week. Don't get me wrong, it was well worth the classes, I just don't have the money down here lol. I spend money on checking off my bucket list. I could tell you what I am doing this month and next and month after, but that would ruin the surprise ;...

For the total solar eclipse Monday, I traveled to Portland Oregon with my boyfriend and saw some old college buddies that live in Hillsboro and stayed at their place. We woke up at 3am to get to the site viewpoint Shellburg falls (outside of it, five miles) he chose for us to go to. The drive took us 2-3hrs to other side of Oregon. I saw small quails crossing the street late in the afternoon, a sunrise, that is hardly describable here, best in person, pictures don't do justice, same with an eclipse memory that was amazing! It was well worth heavy traffic after and lack of sleep, and a long 10 mile hike in heat and blisters on ankles, and being sore the next day. Totality of 2mns and total darkness, silence all around. Animals were quiet. Some people howled at the moon and danced around. I lay on a towel with my guy between power lines and a meadow field stretching miles around. We went to Portland, which he had never been, so I showed him around, and we went to Desc...

Just so you know- some things are just as important as world travel. I have been putting my own health on the back burner because I like to put others first. I know it sounds incredibly ridiculous to myself too when I think about it. However, I have. Mia, my friends, my family, my boyfriend, but not me essentially. Yes, I go to the gym and that is crucial for daily life, but there is more. I have had teeth pain for awhile and sore gums; although leaky gut and ibs have stuck with me since I was a kid, along with lactose intolerance. I did not even focus on any of it. I continued to get sick a lot and have no energy, while still trying to work out. It affected my mood and ruined I am sure, some friendships.  I am grateful for attending therapy for the last four years simply for self growth and to gain the right tools in order to work on things I wanted to work on. That was an expense. So, when the tagline things is mentioned, I would assume material things, not on concret...

Gloria has lived at the Villas 11yrs. She is an older lady with two white dogs who bark and roam around the complex. She knows rhe office staff by name and the maintenance people. They answer to her whenever there is trouble a foot and whenever she catches them for small talk. She is a bit of a curmudgeon in her own right and owns it right down to her style and jewelry and her southern drawl when she complains about the apt children running lose in the area. She lets you know her presence, but takes no crap or phoniness, she will see how transparent you become. Her demeanor speaks of "back off" but surprisingly she talks to me out of anyone else in that entire villa. Maybe I am just too nice or have no one to talk to there either. I listen to her and we chat about whatever she has on her mind or she attempts to pry into my world, which I oblige sometimes if feeling need to. She has many friends that she visits frequently and takes extravagant trips and sometimes just to a s...

I am not talking about Lana Del Ray people! I am referring to the trials, tribulations, triumphs, and taxing one another; yet tastefully worth it in every-way---Long-distance relationships. The kind you told your  your closest friends you swore you would never do because you thought you could never make it. The kind that can be debilitating, but altogether strengthening and rewarding for some. You made a deal with God this life was about you and your self discovery, your work, your independence, and your choices as whole, but it holds no bearing, when someone walks into your world. You can choose to ignore the frightening, yet exhilarating possibility of taking a chance, or you can surge forward into something without expectations or proposed ideals of what your life should look like. Should, could, would, how do you even know what that is, until you are in it?  LDR to me was like a swear word you couldn't say at the dinner table, you just didn't do it, and you didn't e...

 This little town of Rancho Bernardo has grown on me. Somehow it reminds me of home and somehow in other ways does not. My boyfriend managed to find some adorable, lesser known places to eat, things to do, and I hide out in these places just to think. It's funny I am a fan of chain restaurants, like Einstein Brothers, Chipotle, etc, but even then, it is so nice to find a place the locals like, or one not many people go to at certain hours of the day like a yogurt shop. I was hesitant to plant myself here and I think somehow it has weaseled it's way to my inner core especially when my mind drifts to my family, I remember I have Mia with me and God to tackle what I cannot face alone. I stand around in my quiet apartment, no ac on (sure I am crazy, but it saves me money), and I think about how much things have changed for me over the years, but what has also remained the same. I keep a dream board in my room as I mentioned before, of my hopes. Last week, I was in a rut and I wan...

Save the ta tas, home again and socal life Recently, after returning from my Italy trip I am learning about bralettes and how much more comfortable and supportive they are. These sets areealthier for the girls! I learned about this from a traveler friend who posted aboutRecently, after returning from my Italy trip I am learning about bralettes and how much more comfortable and supportive they are. These sets are healthier for the girls! I learned about this from a traveler friend who posted about them on her facebook page and at first I thought she was totally nuts because who wants to go without a cup size orsomething that does not look cute! I have worn bras for years and the underwire cuts like crazy and they are uncomfortable as hell but in the name of fashion and sexy the word comfortable need not apply.  I had pains and I just didnt feel right coming home and my ta tas hurt; also heard it causes breast cancer and bruising, boo. I tried on of the bralettes from Target, a...