There Will Be No Wedding!

My hopefully soon to be fiance and his friend went out to dinner after ring shopping. I was at home dying to talk to him in person about the whole thing! He finally got home and brought me cow blood taco as per my request. I had sent him to try out the tacos Carly got me into when I stayed at her place while apartment hunting a few years ago. Unsurprisingly, they loved them. Now, back to the ring story...

Ring Size

On my way home from the Nigerian Restaurant. Nice drive, a bit of traffic but nothing new. We are in LA after all! 

My new friend and I stayed in touch. I really appreciated her treating me to Nigerian food. Did I tell you she paid at the restaurant as well? How nice was that? I owe her one! 

Nigerian Food in Los Angeles

I had gone against my better judgement and befriended a girl from asouth africa. Nice girl. We had so much in common, when it comes to values etc. It was mice to find someone who gets 'it' we had spend a great deal of time talking over the phone with each other. I mean hours! The girl had a craving for African food. She told me she heard of a Nigerian restaurant in Inglewood. Neither of us had been there before. I was up for it though. When am I ever not? She doesn't drive. She offered to pay for gas if I picked her up and dropped her off afterwards. With a truck like mine, someone offers to pay for gas, you accept! It was a date!

Saturday morning, Calvin was at home. I had already mentioned to him that the girl and I har plans. I left him at home and headed off to hollywood.

Click on the picture/video above

Do You Know What Today Is?

Independence day, we were at home. Calvin and his family and friends had a ton of fireworks that they had ordered from their 'fireworks guy'. They must have spent a couple of hundred dollars each on those! Talk about dedication! They all congregated at Calvin's parents' house and did their thing. The entire neighborhood was fireworksing. It was much louder than Beverly Hills. It had been a long weekend for me, so I stayed in and let the boys do their thing. I went out just for a second when they were exploding their biggest firework and then back home. Apparently, Calvin's brother fell in love that night... on the roof top of his home.. with a woman that had been friends with Calvin for pretty much ever. Yay, love!

Ring Shopping

It had been three to four months since moving in with my boyfriend, Calvin and a year since we started dating. At this point, we had already talked about the future. I think that if you're going to move in with someone, you need to have had a conversation or two about the future. You wanna know the other person's expectations etc. No surprises! After Calvin mentioned, in Santa Barbara, that he wanted to shop for a ring for me, I knew we were headed the direction I wanna head.

Worming Your Way In

Back in LA! Santa Barbara had been an interesting trip. I would like to go there again under different circumstances with positive vibes all around. Life's back to normal, neighbor's kid had a birthday. We were invited, Calvin's mom gave gifts on our behalf. We just showed up for the food!

Birthday Barbecue 

Grumpy Gina

After Chumash painted cave, we went to Solvang; a quaint  Dutch town in Santa Barbara County. I wanted going there since I saw photos that one of my friends had posted on Facebook. She hadn't been there yet but had always wanted to go. Calvin's cousin happens to live in that town, so we arranged to meet up with him while there if he were available.

Solvang Windmill

Chumash Painted Cave in Santa Barbara

It's the morning after the night before.We were going to head back downtown Santa Barbara. After a warm shower and some green tea, we were good to go!

Still the designated driver

Camping in Santa Barbara

Our campgrounds were about 20 minutes outside Santa Barbara City Limits. It was already dark outside and trying to find the grounds to be a bit tricky. I thought we could just follow the GPS and we'd be as good as gold. Nope! The address we had was for the offices. When you look out the campgrounds, the GPS takes you to the middle of nowhere and then says, 'you have arrived!'. No, lady! We haven't! Calvin told me he thought he may have seen an off ramp further back. I had to make a U-turn but we were in a hilly, windy road, so first driveway I saw, I turned into, to turn. Here's Calvin freaking out, 'OMG, babe! Babe! We'll get killed here! don't drive into this yard! What are you doing, babe?' I thought I was dreaming. What kinda co-pilot is this? You job is to keep me calm, not get more excited than me!

Santa Barbara State Beach

The route to Santa Barbara was so scenic! So enjoyable! Plus, I love to drive, so this wasn't a stretch for me at all. We made one more pit stop before we got there. We got there sooner than I expected. One minute we were on the freeway, the next, we were on State Street!

Calvin suggested we head straight for the beach. Good idea, babe! Now, to find parking! We found a nice spot, probably the only one; right by the beach. Thank you, stars! I was so excited to be in one of the places I had always dreamt of going, I took a 360° video clip. Here it is!

State Beach, Santa Barbara, California