all the trends

Annnnd it's Monday again! You know what's awesome about my life right now? I don't totally dread Mondays, in general. I really like my job and my coworkers and it's really nice to not have Sunday completely ruined by The Dread of Impending Monday. So consider this your public service announcement: Get a job you like and it's like you earn an extra day of enjoying your weekend! Boom.

I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend, though. For sure. There was an unspeakable amount of Mexican food consumed. Hours lounging in the sun by the pool. Several evenings of tennis-- and I actually WON a few games against Matt, which is nothing short of a miracle. We rented a highly awkward and enjoyable movie (Lars and the Real Girl). And I capped off the weekend with a very fun ladies' night to celebrate a friend's birthday last night.

Remember my summer bucket list? Well, don't be fooled: just because I haven't been talking about it or posting updates, I've definitely been trucking away at accomplishing my goals. I'll probably do a recap at some point, but not all of the items are all that fascinating, photo-worthy, or deserving of an entire post. But yesterday I accomplished one item that was at least photo-worthy: try a new summer fashion trend.

But being the overachiever that I am, I took it to the extreme. I mean, why wear one summer fashion trend when you could try allllll the summer fashun trendz AT ONE TIME?!

Exactly. Whoever said 'less is more' was obviously stupid.

Behold! Summer 2013 Fashion according to Erika!

Chambray shirt | Neon shorts | Wedges

 And no, I'm not using a fancy filter on my camera, nor do I have a tragic skin disease on my ankles. It's actually because my mirror is that dusty and I was truly too lazy to clean it. I did momentarily think "I should be too embarrassed to put these dusty mirror pictures on the internet," and I kind of am, but then again, here it is. After noticing how dusty the mirror was, I got Matt to take a few more shots outside, but since he hasn't perfected the art of capturing me at my absolute skinniest angle the shoes properly, the dusty mirror shot was still best. ;) 

Along with the Summer 2013 Fashun Trifecta of chambray, neon, and wedge, I added some beach-wavy hair for good measure, which you also can't really see in this picture. Also not pictured: huge sweaty pit stains because IT IS TOO DANG HOT TO BE WEARING A STUPID LONG-SLEEVED SHIRT. The things I sacrifice for fashion!! Anyway. Consider that item checked off the bucket list.

On my way to the birthday party I stopped by Target to pick up a little something for the birthday girl. While there I stopped in the accessories department to try on something I've been pondering for awhile.

The huge floppy beach hat. Personally, I think they're adorable. Way cuter for the beach than my normal (one and only) hat (pictured here). BUT. Not entirely practical.

1) How the heck would I get it to Mexico? I'm not wearing it on a plane. It would get totally squished in my suitcase.
2) It really would not work/fit with my hair in a ponytail or bun, which is how it's gonna be if I'm at the pool or beach. Please note: ten feet of thick hair. I do NOT wear it down outside in the sun. It's like wearing a fur coat. But a hat like this won't fit over a ponytail, plus it would look stupid.
3) I think it would blow away in the wind. No chin strap...whatever happened to those? My regular hats stay on because a) they are tight and b) I stick my ponytail through the little hole in the back.

So while I think hats like this are super cute, I think I've already convinced myself that they're just too impractical for me. And I'm not one to generally care all that much about the practicality of my wardrobe choices (see: wears wedges with shorts for the fun of it), so I guess that really means something. But still. They're awfully cute. 

We had a blast celebrating Kristin's 30th at Aroma's. There were lots of fun girls, lovely and tasty cocktails, good food, and lots of laughing. A bit wilder than my normal Sunday night, but that's to be expected when you're wearing three fashion trends at once, I suppose. 

And now it's Monday. I'm getting extremely anxious/excited about the Bachelorette finale tonight (for the record, I think that Brooks is going to come back. I still like Chris best, but I think that if Brooks doesn't come back, Des should just pick no one. Chris deserves better than her sloppy seconds, and Drew too strongly resembles a Ken doll to be taken seriously) and I'm out-of-my-mind excited that every day is bringing us one day closer to going on vacation! I have multiple ridiculous lists going for 'vacation prep' and I get huge amounts of joy checking things off. So with that, farewell! Happy Final Rose Monday!